Martha Clarke’s Angel Reapers at Signature

Since her Juilliard student days, Martha Clarke’s career has flourished, first, with Anna Sokolow, then Pilobolus, her company, Crowsnest, and beginning with her 1984 creation, Garden of Earthly Delights, countless dance-theater works since.  A MacArthur “genius,” she now garners a Signature Residency Five Playwright contract, and her distinguished career shows no sign of slowing down.  Her first production for the Pershing Square Signature Center in Manhattan was the successful Chéri based on the writing of Colette and starring Alessandra Ferri and Herman Cornejo. Her second, a re-envisioned Angel Reapers, was slated for a winter run in 2016. 

An earlier “in-progress” configuration of Angel Reapers, commissioned and performed at Duke’s ADF in 2010, was then shown at the Joyce Theater, New York City in 2011.  For this Signature revision, Clarke cast her favorite actress from her 2014 Threepenny Opera Atlantic Theater Company production, Sally Murphy, to play Eldress, Mother Ann Lee. Lean and fair, Sally seems against type for the Shaker leader, but her superlative voice and stage presence more than compensate. Casting the five men goes smoothly, too. Nicholas Bruder, Rico Lebron, Matty Oaks, Andrew Robinson, and returning yon tande (formally Whitney Hunter)––all strikingly masculine––are rough-hewn powerhouses. Four of the women, Sophie Bortolussi, Asli Bulbul, Lindsey Dietz-Marchant, and Gabrielle Malone from earlier renditions of Reapers, are on board to serve as valued contributors.  

For the eleventh role, Sister Mary Chase, the young orphan raised by the Shakers, dozens of hopefuls are first sorted out vocally. The remaining ones are asked to return for movement sessions. A dancer that I recommended might be right for the part because of her inherent joyfulness.  She made it through the rounds, alongside the recent Juilliard dance graduate, lanky, supple mover, Ingrid Kapteyn. “Your recommendation is terrific, but Ingrid’s withheld mysteriousness is a nice contrast,” Martha ruminated.  Considering a fellow alumna (abet years apart), she is also fascinated with Ingrid’s natural ability to sing and act, hitherto untapped by the present dance department’s technical regime. (“Technique, schmetnique!” Martha loves to complain.) Sensing that Ingrid had won out, the other potential told me,  “I would have LOVED to perform Angel Reapers. But I kind of knew the way Martha gave me a hug after that audition that she’d be making another choice (those Juilliard kids!)”

Weeks of previews began on February 2 with performances extended through March 20, 2016. During that period, the Pershing Square Signature Center scheduled a full roster of informal pre-show and after-talks as part of their free public events series. At one of these, with the theater’s Associate Artistic Director, Beth Whitaker fielding questions, Martha Clarke admits to those gathered around, “Everyone else is fighting a cold. Music director, Arthur Solari’s back home in bed. Alfred Uhry can’t be here.  He’s at a technical rehearsal for his play at the Roundabout . . . he says,” Martha adds wearily. Signature had provided an apartment on Ninth Avenue to ease her schedule for the duration: she has superintended 12 of the last 19 shows so far, only packing up the dogs and laundry for a day or so to go back home in Connecticut.  But her collaborators have moved on to other projects and it is Martha’s intention to keep watch.  Ever game to connect with audience members, this evening she answers intelligent questions with thoughtful, if a little shop worn, responses. 

To a query about her first discussions with Alfred Urhy about the Shakers, Martha answers, “I have to think back at the original research because this work has been in progress for years now,” adding, “This piece is a love affair.  Not all are, trust me, but this process has been incredibly rewarding.” How has this production been revised,” someone asks?  She explains, “Alfred has made changes in the script. For example, Mother Ann Lee says she lost five children in childbirth, although the records say four. He liked the sound of repeating ‘five’ better!  And we clarified the arc of the story line. Arthur has added a song and refined harmonies.”  Another asks whether to expect the erotically charged scenes for which Clarke is famous.  This time, her trademark would be more subdued, she responded. “We tried the men’s section in the nude, but this time in closer proximity to the audience, it seemed wrong, so they are fully dressed.” Instead, she replaced this with a complicated rhythm pounded out by the men’s feet. 

Clearly, Martha’s renewed enthusiasm for the project reflects Signature’s continuing financial support, high production values, and most important, the luxury of time–– a dream come true in the dance-theater world.  This time, she chose the Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre setting to re-create Angel Reapers with the audience sitting on two sides of the performance area to give a meeting house feel to the new production. Marsha Ginsberg’s design is more realistic, Martha explains, “We have a sliding barn door, just like the one I have in Connecticut! The set is a more authentic rendering this time, with real glass paned windows and pegs on the wall for the chairs.”  Lighting is once again designed by her brilliant colleague Christopher Akerlind. She adds, “I directed from the east side, but Christopher lit from the west.  Both views work, I think.” This arrangement has enhanced the expanded sweeping, swirling and weaving actions pressing throughout the depth and breath of the space.  I mention this to dancer, Sophie Bortolussi afterward, who quickly warns me, “Don’t say that to Martha!” knowing her predilection for meaning, motivation, and less rather than more.  

Clarke played with the opening scene during the previews, settling with the audience entering into the space to view a male figure sitting in meditation. A few moments later, a female enters and takes a seat diagonally across from him on the women’s side. Each progresses from stillness to soft swaying.  Gradually, others enter and take their places, hands in laps, heads bowed. Their gentle breathing becomes quiet giggling as impatient Brother William waits for straggler Brother Valentine, who runs in.  As the lights dim, an accumulative joining in of laughter becomes an all out explosion of gaiety. They join in to chant “Simple Gifts,” the first of 17 traditional Shaker spirituals sung a cappella as they rise for a rousing celebration of rhythmic foot stamping and fervent dancing.  The choreographic progression builds into high energy Juba strutting by the runaway slave, Brother Moses (yon tande).  Breathless, he shouts, “Once I prayed with my heart . . . Then I learned to pray with my legs!” 

Alfred Uhry’s dialog has been tightened since the Joyce production and as one reviewer pointed out,  “now flows seamlessly living in the same heightened, poetic world as Clarke’s movement.” The work contains brief monologues that illuminate without breaking the spell. Rules are delivered in sweet harmony, such as,  “ Brethren and sisters may not pass each other on the stairs,” and, “None shall sit cross-legged nor in any awkward posture.” We glean just enough information during simple confessions such as, “I have the gift of gathering eggs, “ and we are stirred by more poignant ones, such as when Mother Ann Lee speaks fiercely about her stillborn babies before finding her way. ”Once I lived in the world of the flesh. And I rutted like a pig in the sty of my marriage bed.  . . .  Five times was the dead lump of flesh ripped from my bleeding body and tossed onto the dug heap.  Thus did I reap the bitter reward of fornication.  And thus did I turn my heart forever to God.” For this scene, Clarke places the actress in profile, luminously back lit from light through the window. Her last words will be delivered in reversed facing, one of many ingenious compositional devices used by Clarke to unify the 75-minute work. At another point, Sister Agnes Renard, the French immigrant woman, tells her story of losing her three year old on their sea voyage. “She never saw America. Only I.  Aidez moi, Seigneur. Aidez moi. Help me to understand.” With Sophie Bortolussi in this role, her own French accent makes her cry for help even more heartrending.  

There are stunning duets interspersed within the piece.  Sisters Hannah (Asli Bulbul) and Susannah (Lindsey Dietz Marchant) intertwine with the taller female cruelly mopping the floor in circular tossing, kicking and stepping over the other. A frustrated Brother David (Andrew Robinson) pleads, ”I had a woman. I had a farm.  Neither bore me fruit. So I gave them away to God. But I love them still. And when I come to live with you in Paradise, please dear lord, Give them back to me.”  He then throws his barren wife (Gabrielle Malone) over his head, slamming her back down on her feet, over and over again, as if shaking out a heavy carpet.  Another couple copulates on the floor center stage. Semi-nude and on top of Brother Valentine (Rico Lebron), Sister Mary Chase (the Juilliard girl!) arches in orgiastic frenzy in a moment of sexual arousal. Others enter to sweep away evil spirits, shooing and hissing to break the spell.  Later, two men (Matty Oaks and Robinson) wrestle with their pent-up eroticism, half homoerotic, half warrior-like. Toward the end, in utter stillness, the pregnant Mary Chase in a scarlet dress enters through the door while the shadowy figure of her husband waits outside. She timidly approaches the Eldress to ask forgiveness.  Mother Ann Lee places her hands on the returning sinner’s face before turning away.  The poignancy of this scene reinforces the denial of the flesh as the inevitable demise of the community. 

Certain sections, such as when four women sail a sheet aloft, are vague throwbacks to earlier dance work in modern dance history. Doris Humphrey’s 1920 Soaring, co-choreographed with Ruth Saint Denis nearly one hundred years before, comes to mind to the few still able to recall it through reconstructions. And Humphrey’s own 1948 Shakers begs comparison. If Clarke’s concept and delivery of the Shaker theme goes far deeper than Humphrey’s twelve-minute dance, her choice of topic undeniably relates to her modern dance heritage. (As a Juilliard student, Martha herself performed in Humphrey’s Ritmo Jondo, and several Limón works.) Humphrey’s Shakers explores the activities of the community, stoic and upright.  In that work, Humphrey’s meticulous structuring separates the five men and six women in a dance of worship and formal austerity. But Clarke’s version, named by contemporary critics “a hot bed of repression” and “a portrait of lust and sexual agony,” points to the light-year differences in approach.  Elizabeth Zimmer of The Village Voice has further claimed that Clarke was “responsible for some of the most erotically charged dance-theater projects of the past thirty years.” Humphrey’s early attempts at integrating of text and song now seem stilted because we have witnessed Clarke’s ability to successfully merge those components into a seamless whole.  Still, Humphrey’s legacy burns brightly.

During the months of reworking and subtle tweaking, Martha’s after-show notes continue to keep the actors on track.  At one point, she says to Sally: “ I can’t hear the melody in “Simple Gifts” any more. Something’s wrong there. Should we call in Arthur for a brush-up rehearsal?”  Each show also gets an official performance “report” from the top-notch stage manager, B. Bales Karlin.  After the seventh preview, he logged, ”A great way to end this week.  What a strong & beautiful show. Our house was packed, and with a lively, yet older crowd.  They were jovial at the top, loving each line our cast gave and then followed into the piece for the more somber moments.  Asli was a powerhouse today, really opening up the world with her first speech and scaring us as she threw Lindsey around the stage.  Loud ‘Bravos’ were heard at our enthusiastic curtain call.”  And under COSTUMES:  “Can the foam inside Matty’s hat be replaced? It’s getting stinky and not staying on his head. Sally’s petticoat has a tear on the left side of her waist. Can this be looked at?  And PROPS:  “Chair #9 needs some reinforcement.  We have left it between the two windows onstage.“

These weeks of well attended previews give the ever self-promoting Martha leeway to confer with booking agents for touring and a possible run in London, as she socializes with supporters and friends, and entertains future project collaborators while pressing on for a filmed version. The cast has geared up for the official opening on February 22, 2016 with critics officially invited. Afterward, Karlin submitted, ”OPENING NIGHT! The tone was set early this evening and we had beautiful performances from everyone! Our audience was quickly captivated by the piece, focusing in on our quiet stillness at the top of the show.  Matty & Andrew’s duet was heartbreaking and set a great new pace as we shifted to a darker part of the piece.  Hearty curtain call with many standers!  Happy Opening to All!  Thanks for all the work, effort & love that has gone into this piece & process. To an excellent run!”   He adds, “Party to follow!” and under COSTUMES:  “The heel on one of Sophie’s shoes broke off.  The toe of the other shoe also needs some love.”  And under SCENIC:  “The barn door has been giving some resistance when closing it at top of show.  Can it get some oil?”

Once more, Martha’s acknowledged virtuosity and grueling diligence have paid off.  The New York Times printed, ” Dialog is spare here, and plot even more so.  Ms. Clarke’s choreography takes precedence . . . it is through movement that we understand . . . There is plenty of ecstasy, too” [and] . . . transparent beauty to the choreography  . . . It’s the twinning of euphoria and anguish that makes Angel Reapers quietly glorious. Vivid and luminous!” Thankfully quotable, the review helps pack the theater and extends the run until March 20th. This time around, the Lucille Lortel off-Broadway 2016 awards will present her and Uhry with a special “Outstanding Alternative Theatrical Experience” award for the production.  

With Angel Reapers, Clarke has reaffirmed her own interlocking brand of creator-director-choreographer, full-bodied and worthy of her “genius” title.  A good bet is that her mentor and dance composition teacher, Louis Horst who called Martha Graham his “first and best student,” would cite Martha Clarke as his “last and best.” 

Martha’s next project will be based on Saint Francis, taking her creative energies to another realm of monastic intensity.  Shifting through cast possibilities, she has already recruited her new favorite, Nicolas Bruder. Martha mused, “There aren’t many parts for women, but perhaps an angel or two! And I already have a wolf and a raven in training!”

Janet Mansfield Soares  

April 22, 2016