Wonder & Whimsy from Happenstance at Theatre Project
The endlessly inventive, imaginative members of Happenstance Theater return to the stage of Baltimore Theatre Project with their latest devised exploration of the follies, foibles, and frolics of the human condition: Juxtapose, a Theatrical Shadow Box.
Performing from December 4th – 21st, and conceived and devised by the full company, Juxtapose takes its inspiration from such disparate source material as the shadow boxes of artist Joseph Cornell, the films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie, Les Micmacs) and Jacques Tati (Mon Oncle, M. Hulot’s Holiday), the poetic ruminations of T.S. Eliot (“Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”) with maybe a dash of Saint-Exupery (The Little Prince), not to mention from music hall and vaudeville, silent film and circuses, and climate science. The usual mix.
Juxtapose imagines Somewhere and Somewhen in the misty past of a bygone era that is also today and tomorrow, where the disparate, disconnected denizens of a perfectly ordinary–yet slightly magical– tenement house find their lives disrupted and their stories intersecting upon the unexpected arrival of a shooting star in human form.
The result is a mixture of magic, mystery, music, and mayhem barely suppressed; a series of moments of visual reverie that overlap and, yes, juxtapose with character, relationships, and narrative–both spoken and un-; all told through layers and patterns. Isolated objects and people get brought together within a frame to create poetic possibilities, offering audiences a reminder that in our shared plight the ability to laugh at fear and embrace the limitless hope of imagination might save us.
Founding company members Sabrina Selma Mandell and Mark Jaster joined me to reflect on the origins and impulses of this latest collaboration, which playfully ponders big questions–like mortality–or the point of creativity alongside quotidian questions of getting through the day or to the next minute.
More information on the show and the company is online here: Happenstance Theater
Details of showtimes, tickets, and more are here: https://theatreproject.org/juxtapose-a-theatrical-shadow-box/
