I saw the dance-theater spectacle Erosion: A Fable tonight at La MaMa Theater in the East Village. It was put on by the Loom Ensemble, a tightly functioning unit of hyper-talented people who can — to put it concisely — do everything. It’s not a perfect piece of work, keeping in mind that I’m biased by an exhaustion with critiques of corporate culture that rely heavily on The Ignored Homeless Person serving as a barometer against which characters morals are measured and judged (deep breath), but there are moments throughout its one hour and twenty minute course that I thought were very real, very fine achievements of theater. Dream sequences, sparsely light and sparsely scored, in which the dancers limbs shuddered and twitched in convincing, catatonic distress. Impressively constructed set pieces, deployed at key climatic moments, that managed to explode the confines — both narrative and actual — presented by a tiny, tiny room. Deft physical humor, witty jokes, and some characters that were very likable even when they weren’t, like bossman Julia, sharply creased as a pair of trousers, but all the more charming for her totally neurotic adherence to the rules, dammit.
I really liked seeing it.
(Aside: It was a Kickstarter project.)
