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Tales From The Afterlife Rivera's 'Sonnets' is a wonderful, moving mix of dance and theater
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Published: November 1, 2009
WFU THEATRE: STRONG ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCES
In Sonnets for an Old Century, which opened Friday night at Wake Forest University Theatre, playwright Jose Rivera has written a wonderful concept of the afterlife.
That concept has been expedited with appropriate grace and poetry by directors and choreographers Cindy Gendrich (theater) and Christian Tsoules Soriano (dance). They also designed the sound.
In Sonnets, the newly dead are welcomed by the more experienced dead into an open, airy space and invited to make a statement to the world.
One by one, they step up to a microphone and either tell the stories of their lives or deaths or share the wisdom that they gleaned from living.
They express anger and bitterness, guilt, bafflement, tenderness -- the full range of human emotion and experience, and their topics swing from relationships as personal as that of a mother and daughter to those as grand as the meaning of the universe.
As each actor delivers his or her monologue, the other performers respond with song and movement.
One cast member plays a soulful saxophone, another strikes a brass "singing bowl."
These details give a richness to the show, which might be better characterized as "dance theater" than either dance or theater.
Some less-than-stellar individual acting is compensated for by strong overall ensemble performances, lovely group dances and montages, and the sheer poetry of Rivera's script.
The show manages to feel both modern -- such as specific references to the efficacy of therapy -- and timeless, as timeless as the need to be seen and heard and appreciated.
dfelder@wsjournal.com
727-7314
Wake Forest University Theatre and Dance departments will present Sonnets for an Old Century at 7:30 p.m. today and Nov. 4-7, and at 2 p.m. next Sunday in the Scales Art Center on campus. Tickets are $12, $10 for seniors, $5 for students. Call 758-5295.
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