Sublimity – A Love Supreme is a lot of things. It’s a livestreamed show and an in person show. It’s dance and theatre. It’s a fictional narrative but it holds roots in the world we live in. Dancing Monkeys Laboratories blends and bends the definitions of theatre in this production.
The play takes place in an imagined reality, where citizens are programmed by a set of laws. We see three people who program the citizens by reading all the laws out. These individuals don’t have names, just positions. Citizens follow the laws, without questioning anything, and the programmers never deviate from the script written in a time that no one remembers. Then something shifts. Number One (Sarah Robertson) makes a connection with Number Three (Meegan Sweet) and it slowly starts to unravel the systems in place. They try to keep their relationship a secret from Number Two (Val Duncan), who seems to have some sort of connection with a humanoid (Serenella Sol) who is neither citizen nor human vessel. The production illustrates that as much as you can try to control everything, humans will find a way to connect.
This production also features dancers who move to piano music composed by Nathaniel Schmidt with David Burnett and Donovan Seidle. Their are costumed in orange and brown dresses, designed by Angela Dale and these dancers stand in stark contrast to the programmers who are in dark army like jackets and pants. The lighting design by Skylar Desjardins really gives the production its futuristic, science fiction feel, while still illuminating the movement of the dancers (Sol, Maddy Faunt and Margarita Rebetskaia). The dancers’ movement communicates on a different level and also stands in contrast to the rigidity of the programmers. The programmers have what looks like music stands on wheels, that are lit with LED blue lights that they turn off and on. All of these little touches add to the performance.
Sublimity is a bit shallow. The laws that are read out by the cast are repetitive, and after the 4th reading, it starts to wear a bit. The interaction between Sol and Duncan is intriguing, but the production doesn’t delve into it. The narrative only scratches the surface of its themes, even though the production value and the different forms of storytelling make the production richer. I wish it went a bit deeper.
Dancing Monkey Laboratories’ production of Sublimity is closed but stay tuned about future work by subscribing on their website.