The best moment of Darkness and Light, Basil Twist’s new collaboration with Robby Barnett and Jonathan Wolken for Pilobolus, comes right at the start. A number of people stand or crouch amid scattered machinery, pointedly staring at the audience. It’s long enough for a mental snapshot, but after a scrim lowers, concealing the scene, I rue my lack of photographic memory. Were they wearing caps and goggles, like long distance swimmers? Tights? They were bare-chested, right? And those were projectors, yes?
The piece unfortunately doesn’t go very far after that sly reveal, settling into mostly basic exercises in silhouette puppetry. A shadowy wedge grows into a figure’s waist. Creatures that appear like frothy doodles inhabit a sea blue scrim. A face morphs into a scary biting and licking machine. Nebula-like wisps dance across a starry field. Blobs consume other blobs and grow. The usual. In fact, the piece would be right at home in the repertory of Momix, founded by one of Pilobolus’ founders, Moses Pendleton. (Coincidentally, earlier this year Pendleton created a work for Diana Vishneva’s Beauty in Motion production that employed similar trompe l’oeuil exercises.) read more
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