The Center for Contemporary Performance, or “PS21,” as it is known, is in Chatham, N.Y., just over the Massachusetts border and a reasonable drive from pretty much anywhere in Berkshire County. The venue had its first season in 2006, and being the proverbial new kid on the block, it is not as well known as some of its Berkshire County counterparts such as Shakespeare & Company and Barrington Stage Company, and certainly not yet in the league of Tanglewood or Jacob’s Pillow. Judging by the vision, energy, and drive of the organization, however, and its desire to truly be contemporary, innovative, and accessible and affordable to all, I am quite confident in the coming years PS21 will be spoken of in the same breath as these other venerable performing-arts institutions in the Berkshires.
The PS21 grounds are welcoming, and the main performance structure, constructed in 2018, is very smartly designed so that it can be configured in a number of different ways, from a proscenium stage, to theater-in-the-round, to a black box, each with an intimate, comfortable feel.
The programming by Elena V. Siyanko, the executive and artistic director, focusses on performance of all kinds, including music, dance, theater, circus arts, interdisciplinary performance, and even, as PS21 calls it, “unclassifiable work.” Siyanko is clearly interested in bringing experimental and cutting-edge artists from all over the world to Chatham. This summer, artists and performers from Portugal, Japan, Bali, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Canada, Peru, and the United States, among numerous other places, will be creating, teaching, and performing at PS21.
I have seen three performances at PS21 this summer, created by artists from Canada and the U.S., the United Kingdom, and Portugal, and there is a lot to be said for watching work created by people from other parts of the world. Dare I say it (for fear of being politically incorrect), but in America, we seem to be getting so afraid of being politically incorrect that we have narrowed our stage and screen experiences to the point where each one often seems indistinguishable from the next. Not so with the work I have seen at PS21.
‘SMASHED2,” by Gandini Juggling from the United Kingdom, and consisting of a company of seven women and two men, is an example. The company performed at PS21 this past weekend, July 13 and 14. While Gandini Juggling is definitely not strictly circus, in the U.S., one would expect everything in a work by a group of jugglers to be entirely family friendly, and it pretty much was. There was slapstick and classic physical comedy. But there was also sexual innuendo, visual comedy that clearly contained sexual references, and even some oblique but biting commentary on power relationships between men and women. All in the name of fun, of course. Sadly, we seem to be moving towards a world in which I am not sure one would see that in a performance by jugglers creating work in the U.S. nowadays. These are different times from when The Flying Karamazov Brothers, for example, were first performing. That company of jugglers and performers, like this one, certainly had an edge.
Gandini Juggling is the brainchild of jugglers Sean Gandini and Kati Ylä-Hokkala, who formed the company in 1992 to, as they themselves say, “reinvent and reinvigorate juggling.” And, with “SMASHED2,” they clearly are continuing to refine the mission.
The work begins simply and sweetly, with each performer walking diagonally and juggling three oranges in unison with the other performers, amidst more oranges and watermelons scattered around the stage. One knows the juggling will get more complicated, with more oranges (I am going to call them balls), more complicated steps, more interaction between the performers, and what about those watermelons?
The juggling does get more complicated; the performers “dance” while they juggle, (which must really be difficult); some performers juggle five balls; the relationships between the performers get intricate, then confused; the frenzy increases to fever pitch; eventually the entire thing devolves into a free-for-all, and—foreshadowed by the title of the piece of course—the watermelons are smashed to pieces, along with many of the oranges. By the end, everyone is sliding around on the stage in the mess. (Have no fear; apparently all the fruit was collected and fed to farm animals after the show!)
There were many, many great touches and twists in the work. The music used was eclectic and imaginative, from The Delmore Brothers, to Ennio Morricone, Roy Orbison, Ravel, Verdi and the Sex Pistols, among others. It was a surprising and nice novelty that there were no clubs/pins juggled, although one performer did an enjoyable piece of work with a rod. And the performers appeared to revel in their technical differences and their individuality. They occasionally demonstrated different juggling styles, ball-throwing heights, and speeds, and therefore the unison work was, at times, a little loose and really visually interesting. Also, the passing was quite unusual; not the normal six or more ball passing where the jugglers face each other. The performers in “SMASHED2” would stand in these tight groupings and move balls around one or two performers in a complex repeating pattern, with many hands handling the balls as they were passed. It was the kind of thing you could watch forever, and probably never be really sure as to how it was done. It was like vertical three-card monte with balls, and it was wonderful.
PS21 is just over the border in Chatham, N.Y. Judging by what I have seen at the venue this summer, I think you will be very pleasantly surprised, and challenged, if you make the trip.
