Nut/Cracked
If you’ve ever wanted to crawl inside the wonderfully messed up mind of an artist, to see what races through his brain in the moments in between laying his head on the pillow and drifting into sleep, go see Nut/Cracked. David Parker is the mastermind behind "Nut/Cracked" and The Bang Group, which performs the piece now through October 26 at the Boston Center for the Arts as part of the Theater Offensive’s Out on the Edge 17th Annual Queer Theater Festival. Parker, a trained ballet and tap dancer, imbues his Nutcracker-inspired vignettes with energy, originality and pure joy.
David Parker himself begins the show with a bit of song and dance alongside a fellow dancer. Provided a rhythm from their tap shoes, the two present a Christmas medley of sorts, foreshadowing the silly, absurd and percussive scenes to come. We then jump into a jazzed-up version of Tchaikovksy’s ’Sugar Plum Fairy’ section, which shows dancers sprinting about stage grabbing and stealing each other’s Christmas presents, bringing up themes of ownership and competition which persist in most of the other numbers.
One such number features a woman anxiously tip-toeing around a large sheet of bubble wrap to the Glenn Miller’s take on "Waltz of the Flowers". It is ripe with the anticipation of the moment when the dancer carelessly flings her entire body down onto the noisy material, wrestling with it and even tap dancing on it to glorious effect. She is joined near the end of her lost solo by another dancer with a smaller piece of bubble wrap which provokes an odd sort of competition between them. It is not the only time Parker distracts sumptuous pieces with similarly non sequitur, gratuitous
moments. I’m not sure whether it is because he believes he’ll garner bigger laughs this way or not, but his most hilarious moments come when the dancers aren’t forced into ’being funny’.
A skating pond serves as the backdrop for the number entitled "Snow", which is a hilarious and beautiful interpretation of the "Waltz of the Snowflakes". The ’skaters’ move about the stage, at times as if they were actually skating, at times beating rhythmically into the ice-white stage. Parker’s choreography shines most in numbers like "Snow", where his core performers dance in unison without all doing the same thing. He has an uncanny ability to complement one dancer’s pirouettes with the another’s back-bending shoulder rolls while still others perform barefooted tap dance and the 80’s-style ’running man’ move.
Parker’s talents also show in his ability and desire to work with all different body and dancer types. His core company dancers dominate the production, but his students and local, featured dancers enhance the sense of community and fun. Parker clearly understands the value of engaging audiences by showing people more of themselves onstage. He doesn’t seek absolute perfection or profound gravitas; he invigorates his audience - and dancers - with infectious absurdity and wholehearted merrymaking.
Through October 26 at the Boston Center of the Arts, 539 Tremont Street, Boston, Mass. For more information visit the Theater Offensive website.
