NY Review: 'Beginning of the End of the…'

More an experimental play than a dance-theater work, the text-heavy “Beginning of the End of the…” may thrill Pirandello fans while disappointing followers of David Gordon, the production’s writer, director, and choreographer. Creator of multitudinous genre-defying theatrical works that merge dramatic text and choreographed movement, Gordon is revered for his wittily staged reinterpretations of classic plays into which he sagely incorporates contemporary political and cultural references. His one-hour encapsulation of Shakespeare’s “Henry V,” for example, was bitingly hysterical in its amalgamation of modern dance, great drama, and topical humor.

But in “Beginning,” which combines three Luigi Pirandello works—the 1921 play “Six Characters in Search of an Author,” the 1923 one-act “The Man With the Flower in His Mouth,” and the 1911 short story “A Character’s Tragedy”—Gordon sticks too tightly to the original texts. As the title of his show implies, Gordon seems to be paying homage to the revolutionary playwright, who began the deconstruction of theatrical conventions that opened the door for the kind of theater Gordon delights in making. If only Gordon had infused his tribute with more of his own contemporary ingenuity rather than proffering such a humorless presentation of the Pirandello writings. Long on talk, short on dance, and staged with a heavy-handed emphasis on the script’s self-conscious references to the technical craft of the performer, the show sounds pedantic, looks black-box plain, and feels dated.

The cast, however, is gold standard and well over 40 in average age. The extraordinary Valda Setterfield plays the leading lady, as well as the author’s wife, which she is in real-life, adding a fun layer to the drama’s concerns with the intersections between illusion and reality. The whiff of comic vanity that Setterfield brings to her portrayal of the diva leavens the show’s somber tone, and the meticulous yet passionately energized performances by the others bring a marvelous sense of urgency to the worn material.

Presented by Pick Up Performance Co(s), in collaboration with the Joyce Theater, at Joyce SoHo, 155 Mercer St., NYC. June 6–30. Wed.–Sat., 7:30 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m. (212) 431-9233 or www.joyce.org.