invitation to a rehearsal
October 19, 2011
Rehearsal, an evening-length work in Spanish choreographer Cuqui (pronounced cookie) Jerez's collaborative project “The Neverstarting Story,” did start (a few minutes late) October 13th. PS122, FIAF Crossing the LIne, and the Wooster Group coproduced its three-day run at the Performing Garage.
Somewhere in the middle, the performers yawn and lie down, but elsewhere it is very engaging. Only one group of theatergoers walked out. Were they Jerez's plants? The press release says she is “exploring the audience's reality” and that Rehearsal is about“the fiction within the fiction.” Overall, Jerez, Maria Jerez, Cristina Blanco, Amaia Urra, and Gilles Gentner entertain. As in Peter Handke's important 1960s Offending the Audience, they cultivate our boredom, which is different than boring us. We are delighted almost throughout the (probably intentionally) long Rehearsal. We are stuck in—we came to see a show, while the performers break to relieve themselves or take calls on fake cell phones. They speak in heavily accented English, revealing their actual concern for us. Furthermore, they succeed in charming and pleasing us.
Cuqui “enters” speaking directions from the audience. The cast members exchange roles, replay sections, look for misplaced things, argue, groom each other, and tell loopy anecdotes. Rehearsal takes fromthe children's beloved The Neverending Story, Noises Off, and Kiss Me, Kate—universal classics with show-within-the-show themes. Jerez's group emulates them in karaoke harmony and its dancing equivalent. In one, they hilariously mark a Fred Astaire tap combination. Performance night is climactic. Our clapping sounds like TV applause tracks while the near ending comprises several variations of curtain calls.
All this could look amateurish and half-baked and Rehearsal could be like a school production, but they are splendid pros. Another difference: the printed program doubles as a half-price drink ticket. Bearers can meet the cast at a nearby bar after the show—Er, rehearsal—for the inside story.
Maria Jerez, Cristina Blanco, Amaia Urra channel Astaire in Rehearsal.