Update, 4/18: I changed this review to praise Greenwood more, adding to dry wit “perfect timing and sculptural use of language.” This piece grew on me in retrospect.
Wynne Greenwood can sing. The almost complete suppression of her singing is part of her performance at On the Boards, titled, Sister Taking A Nap.
The 40 30-minute piece (said 40 in the program notes) finds Greenwood’s character with not a lot to do. A friend calls. She says she needs a ride if she’s going out and adds that she can’t give directions to her sister’s apartment because she doesn’t know where it is, and her sister is sleeping.
Our heroine might go for a run but can’t find a pen to leave a note. (“Where are your pens? … Seriously.”) For a poet-sister not to have pens around is telling. Back to the heroine, who’s hungry. She says so several times. To no avail, she tries to wake her sleeping, former-poet sibling, who is a half-drawn, half-stuffed puppet prone on the floor.
Gina Young plays the role of Greenwood’s shadow. Since Greenwood is already her own shadow, Young pulls off a monumental act of self-suppression. She’s there, and she’s not. She holds a light, paints a plaster bird black (no need to say nevermore), chips away at Greenwood’s pink plaster suitcase, which, having no opening, doesn’t.
Greenwood’s lithe young thing is monumentally self-absorbed. She might as well be a potted plant, because she expects watering. This kind of person does not age well. As presented in Sister Taking A Nap, she’s a drain on everybody except the members of the audience, who respond to Greenwood’s dry wit, perfect timing and sculptural use of language.
Greenwood got her start in the music scene
in Olympia in the late 1990s, which is where she launched Tracy + the
Plastics. The group featured her and her sisters. If she has any sisters, they weren’t in the band.
A Russian joke comes to mind: Two Russians meet on the street, and one asks the other:
Is it true that you formed a musical group?
Yes, a quartet.
How many members?
Three.
Who?
Me and my brother.
You have a brother?
No.
Tracy + the Plastics was Greenwood times three. When on stage, she fronted multiple video screens featuring her alter egos. Sometimes there was a video dog. Sometimes there were sculptures that turned into drums or hatched, like eggs, to offer tea with milk and honey.
There are legions of visual artists who’d like to be musicians and
musicians who boast about their art chops, but few are equally good at
both. Greenwood is the rare, real deal. She fused video and music with
performance stand-up: low-tech/high-concept, kick-butt, punk-tinged,
art-based rock ‘n roll.
Right now she really is alone, even though she’s working with Young. Keeping hope alive, she says she’s going to release another record. I can’t wait.
Bad At Sports on Sister Taking A Nap, here. By noon on Thursday, there will be audience reviews of the show, courtesy of Blog the Boards.
Leave a Reply