Where's the Coffee, Mrs. Margaret?
Barak Marshall Tests the Audiences' Patience at Jacob's Pillow
By: Ken Ross - Jul 09, 2010
Who is Mrs. Margaret? And why the hell does she want so much coffee? It’s always a risk when a dance group decides to perform just one evening length work and nothing else. I’ve written about this gamble before and sadly, many times, it does not pay off. So many dance groups try so hard to be the next Pina Bausch, the late, great grand dame of dance theater. Countless choreographers have tried to follow in Bausch’s footsteps, creating a single, long dance theater work performed by numerous dancers. I cannot stress enough the profound impact I felt upon seeing her group perform “For The Children of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2004. I can still vividly picture a person perched on a table and leaning back as if to fall over, only to have another person push the falling dancing back upright. The piece started this way and my initial thought was, “Mrs. Margaret, please change the channel.” But before I knew it, Bausch had me hooked with her playful, engaging, breathtakingly beautiful three-and-a-half-hour long dance work. I’ve since made a point to see as much Pina Bausch as much as I can and have only been disappointed once. “Monger” clocked in at just over an hour Thursday night at Jacob’s Pillow, but it felt more like four or five. All I kept thinking was, I hope this thing’s over soon so I can find out what NBA team LeBron James will be playing for next season. I was out in time to hear ‘the decision.’ His final answer? Miami. Marshall’s work did its best to create a dance theater piece that comments on important world issues like war and hate and the perils of capitalism. I think most people will agree all these issues are important ones that need to be addressed. Just make sure it’s entertaining as well when you do so. Bausch and others - like Kurt Joss, who created the brilliant modern dance work about war, “The Green Table” - proved it can be done, so don’t say it’s impossible. There were flashes of entertaining moments in “Monger.” One of best was when two male dancers each wore half of a black dress and pretended to be a woman seated between them in red shoes. This clever exchange between the two dancers brought a light-hearted smile to many audience members’ faces.
That’s one of the questions I was left wondering after watching the dance group Barak Marshall perform “Monger” at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Becket.
Each time an unseen bell rings, one dancer after another approaches a microphone and says things like, “Yes, Mrs. Margaret,” “Right away, Mrs. Margaret” or “Sorry, Mrs. Margaret.”
Whatever, Mrs. Margaret.
If you had any brains, Mrs. Margaret, you would have asked the dancers to stop dancing and move on to the next piece. Sadly, this is the only work the group performs without intermission this week at the Pillow.
The group valiantly tried to infuse the piece with other moments of humor. But like a bad stand up who doesn't know when to quit, the timing was all wrong and every attempt to amuse seemed to just simply fall flat.
And as the show dragged on, myself and others in the audience were visibly checking our watches, wondering when Mrs. Margaret was finally going to pull the plug and place an order for a nice, fresh baked dish of ‘scram.’
Ken Ross writes professionally about dance. He lives in Wesstern Massachusetts.