The Mystery of Elle at Les Girls: a waste of talent, parody opportunity
It’s no mystery. To create a dramatic story, throw in some death. Consider the play and ballet, Romeo and Juliet – two young suicides there – and the opera Dido and Aeneas, and the intense goose bumps that follow when the Queen of Carthage sings her last aria, “When I am Laid in Earth.” (We can only hope Bach Collegium San Diego stages its edgy gothic-clad edition again).
And don’t forget Giselle under the spell of faceless wilis, angry maiden ghosts who chug on one foot and lure unfaithful men to dance till they drop. Still, at the top of the death dance list has to be The Rite of Spring, set to Stravinsky’s pulsing score. Pina Bausch’s version of the unlucky virgin dancing to death is unforgettable, chilling even on video in the middle of the day.
In a league all its own, La Femme Tragique: The Mystery of Elle, presented at Les Girls last weekend, was an exploration of two women from opposite sides of the track who commit suicide: an orphan stripper and a police captain. One has to ponder if there is an appropriate list for this production.
Lt. Lockdown and the six-eyed pod in “Mystery of Elle.” Photo: courtesy K. Pierce
Billed as a “mix of cabaret, butoh, and contemporary dance,” outsiders might have expected steamy song and dance, and bawdy bump and grind in the powdery nude.
Butoh originated in post-World War II. It was a reaction to a loss of identity in Japan, and combines dance, improvisation, and traditional Japanese performing arts. Its signature forms are powdered white faces and nude bodies moving slowly, often in displays of grotesque eroticism.
But Elle was an example of talented artists trying to be subversive, rejecting the basic rules of theatrical pacing, simply hell bent on using the slowest aspects of butoh and little else to convey a dark narrative inside a strip club. An opportunity wasted, and a big waste of talent.
The program could have been more successful as a complete and sleazy variety show, or a dark comedy. Imagine Dan Aykroyd’s character, Leonard Pinth Garnell, and how he introduced the “Bad Ballet” parody on Saturday Night Live. This was very bad butoh ballet indeed. Elle was best viewed as a parody, extreme yet simpleton in every way.
The entrance to Les Girls warns of nudity. There should be another one: Beware of slow motion dance theater about dead people, also, you can only drink soda because of the weird cabaret laws in San Diego.
Artistic director Kata Pierce Morgan, a former stripper who owns Les Girls, an all-nude strip club, played herself in the first installment presented last summer, and she peeled off a few layers. [That review is in the sandiegostory.com archive] This time, her collaborative ensemble told the “true” story of two women who committed suicide in the 1980s: an orphan stripper, and a police captain who befriended the burlesque dancers of Les Girls and protected them from corrupt cops in her squad.
While navigating the odd seating, a mix of chairs and carpeted pews, viewers noticed a slumped over man dressed in striped pants. John Diaz, a terrific dancer and yogi, eventually came to life and stole the show as a black-faced Al Jolson character. The performance tradition is viewed as repulsive and racist now, but was popular before the Civil War in minstrel shows and later in vaudeville. Jolson was a huge star who sang his heart out. Diaz only mimed, and really, only his chin was black.
His character had nothing to do with the narrative, but Diaz captured the Jolson style well; gloved hands reaching out, eyes glistening, and legs kicking out from stage left were a welcome burst of energy.
Warner Bros. publicity photo for the film The Jazz Singer (1927), featuring its star Al Jolson.
His contribution was the only big movement in the program, unless you count the swishy side steps provided by three exotic dancers who work at Les Girls.
The old pink building has been host to many young guys in uniform, who enjoy watching women in their birthday suits. The Elle show had an early start, and tickets were $30 at the door, but that allowed viewers to stay for the regular show that followed.
Pitty the young sailor who arrived early, only to see a big larvae with three heads floating over the floor in slow motion, unless he had a sense of humor. A hilarious opening sequence had dancers Anne Gehman and Minaqua McPherson wrapped up tight in a blanket with butoh maven Charlene Penner. Reptilian necks poked out, bug eyes flashed. But the fun faded fast.
McPherson, normally a lovely captivating dancer who can leap and enchant, barely moved away from a pole. She finally regressed into a thumb sucking baby. That was the biggest waste of physical talent.
Gehman, who created many inspired costumes, including her own barely-there body suit, portrayed a crazed reporter. She stared and grimaced, almost drooled, and maintained a slow-motion creep vocabulary. While there were type-writer sound effects, there were no physical clues about her character.
Penner, the city’s butoh star, slinked slowly as the wide-eyed medieval mystic in a long gown and elaborate headdress in the realm of Star Trek. This was one of the few times her bald head was covered in performance.
Mary Gyselbrecht was a stoic police woman. She meandered through the naked folk unfettered. Her name tag, which read Lt. Lockdown, and handcuffs were right in SNL parody territory, just waiting to be mined, yet the audience seemed afraid to laugh out loud.
A pale and slouching theater-major woman named Dawn stared blankly as Tragic Angela, the orphan stripper. Of course, she’d been dead since last summer’s show, left in the crypt-like bed cut into the back wall. Her waxed body was the only costume she had. She just rolled out of the crypt and quickly became a zombie tangled in a giant web.
All of the dancers took turns stretching and pulling on the yucky thing. It represented a web of hardship in the stripper lifestyle. Streaked with red, it looked like a giant blood clot, or the afterbirth purged from a very large animal. In the end, only Lt. Lockdown could release the poor woman from the tangle. The end.
No word yet on whether the group has fleshed out a third installment of La Femme Tragique at Les Girls. Stay tuned.
Kris Eitland covers dance and theater for Sandiegostory.com and freelances for other publications, including the Union Tribune and Dance Teacher Magazine. She grew up performing many dance styles and continued intensive modern dance and choreography at the Univ. of Minnesota, Duluth, and San Diego State Univ. She also holds a journalism degree from SDSU. Her career includes stints in commercial and public radio news production.
Eitland has won numerous Excellence in Journalism awards for criticism and reporting from the San Diego Press Club. She has served on the Press Club board since 2011 and is a past president. She is a co-founder of Sandiegostory.com. She has a passion for the arts, throwing parties with dancing and singing, and cruising the Pacific in her family’s vintage trawler. She trains dogs, skis, and loves seasonal trips to her home state of Minnesota.
http://sandiegostory.com/la-femme-tragique-at-les-girls/
Part I of the La Femme productions, for the history buffs.
I directed the Mystery of Elle and Barbara says I have a tough skin, because I loved this review. I want to add though that the waste of Minaqua’s talent needs to read a “preservation of her talent” as she has been in a cast for 5 weeks with a broken foot. Her confinement to the pole was our version of a theatrical crutch. Kris, you continue to be a very humorous, educated critic. We also received positive comments on the show. Many people whom I hoped to see came to see the show – except my 30 year old nephew who did want to see his Aunt’s boobs again. Remember I played the aging stripper Memorie in 2012 premiere of La Femme Tragique: The Story of Memorie, I was doing lights this time, and he missed the hot Ooh La Las, three very pretty representatives of Les Girls. Of course, he will not miss their performances in the Fringe Festival, July 5-7 at Les Girls. We are premiering La Femme Tragique: Angela’s Dream. This show will present at 9pm and will be faster-paced and steamy for both the sailor and the Fringe crowd, who may like a bit of vixen with their art. Kata with lafemmetragique.com
My earlier post is MEANT to read: except my 30 year old nephew who did NOT want to see his Aunt’s boobs again.
This place was featured in 70s film Hardcore, with George C Scott.