Sitting down in the red velvet seats of the gorgeous and historic Southern Theater last night, I had no idea what I was about to see. This is usually the case with The Moving Company; they sometimes do productions of established plays but more often than not they do their own original pieces. And that's a rare and wonderful thing, to not know what to expect, to be swept away in something unique and surprising and sometimes perplexing. Their newest piece
memento vivere: remember to live, is just such a piece. It's difficult to write about, because mere words can never do their work justice. You just have to see it for yourself. And you should - this piece is moving and funny, speaking directly to the present while still connecting with our shared past. It plays Wednesdays through Sundays, and while it is not overtly Halloween-themed, there definitely are some spooky and even (humorously) gory parts that would make it a great choice for this Halloweekend!
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| photo by Dominique Serrand |
As is often the case, this piece was conceived and written by co-Artistic Directors Dominique Serrand and Steven Epp and Producing Artistic Director Nathan Keepers, alums of the Tony-winning Theatre de la Jeune Lune, with the former directing and the latter two in the ensemble. What's it about? Nothing, and everything. It's really better to leave your linear, logical brain outside the theater and let the storytelling wash over you. We witness a crew of five (Steven and Nathan with Kenzi Allen, Tracey Maloney, and Luverne Seifert) waking up and going about their day, with work that includes collecting memories and burying them. But they also discuss art and literature, and at one point tell the story of the
Oresteia, a trilogy (it's a trilogy?!) of Greek plays about a chain of vengeance that ends with the appearance of the goddess Athena (played by Anna Schloerb, along with various other wordless spirits), delivering democracy to the people. There are also some Shakespearean references, as well as bad jokes about death. This is a show that runs the gamut from the ridiculous to the sublime.
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Anna Schloerb, Tracey Maloney, and Kenzi Allen
(photo by Dominique Serrand) |
As with most MoCo shows, it's very grounded in this earthly world, with all four elements represented on stage (earth - piles of dirt, water - they almost always have literal water on stage, fire - a faux campfire that figures significantly in the conclusion, and air - characters waving air on other characters with pieces of cardboard). But it also taps into something ethereal, ancient, magical. This show made me feel the ghosts of over a hundred years of performance inside the Southern, where the walls are positively dripping with history. It also makes palpably clear that we are all made up of the stories we consume, and what a beautiful thing to slow down and remember that in this short attention span world.
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Nathan Keepers, Steven Epp, and Kenzi Allen
(photo by Dominique Serrand) |
The ensemble, most of whom have performed with MoCo before, are so talented and expressive, with some great prop work, theater magic tricks, and physical theater elements. Costumes transform from underclothes that they sleep in, to chicly ragged outer clothes (and the way that they change is quite something to behold!). They make great use of the space at the Southern, the sound design ranging from beautiful music to strange sound effects to total silence, and the lighting design creating different effects. (Scenic and sound design by Dominique Serrand and John Novak, light design by Marcus Dilliard, costumes by Sonya Berlovitz, prop design by John Novak, Nathan Keepers, and Steven Epp.)
The title of the show, and a line repeated multiple times throughout, means remember to live. Remember to live, because remember - we all die. It's a play about memories, about history, about storytelling, about what it means to be human, about how we move into the future. Or something like that; you may get something totally different out of it when you see it. And that's what good art does.
