PASSION
By Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine
Directed and Choreographed by Eamon Foley
This production of Passion sets the story within a modern aesthetic and uses contemporary dance as a prominent storytelling device.
Choreography
In this production, dance mirrors the different loves expressed between Giorgio, Clara, and Fosca. What begins as beautiful, placed dance divulges into guttural, visceral movements as Giorgio and Clara’s love is bombarded by Fosca’s unbridled passion. The stirrings in Giorgio, the pull between these two women, are explored choreographically on a gradient scale between the conventional beauty of ballet to wild, experimental dance. Though the wild dance may be harder to stomach at first, it will prove to be beautiful in its own right, just like Fosca. The presence of choreography can be used to express not just passion, but also pain and madness, as Fosca is driven to her death and Giorgio is driven to his breaking point.
Last year, director-choreographer Eamon Foley explored how dance could be incorporated into the musical Sunday in the Park with George, by integrating contemporary ballet into the storytelling. Unlike Sunday, there wouldn’t be a separate dance ensemble. The soldier’s will sing the transitions, take on the flashback roles, and dance the stirrings within Giorgio.
Also, unlike Sunday, the choreography would be of a more organic and sensual quality, expressing the longings of the natural human body.
Another example of Foley’s choreography can be viewed above in “The Numbers”.
Modern Aesthetic
What is actually going on when the Doctor claims Fosca has a “hysterical disease?” Fosca is in a male-dominated base camp where she is incredibly ill and she isn’t being listened to. The idea of not listening to science and not listening to women is still pervasive in our society, and it is madness-inducing.
To put our actors in contemporary military fatigues allows us to explore the text with a modern sensibility, to see how the themes of toxic masculinity feel more immediate. “Frattiness,” “the Good-ole-boys,” and other hyper-masculine, anti-intellectual cultural phoneme one might find in the military are an affront to Fosca’s sensitive nature, and reveal how isolated she must feel. To place it in the now just makes it all that more visceral, as we’ve all felt on the outside of those gender performances.
CHEMSEX
During “Happiness,” and other times when they are alone together, Clara and Giorgio indulge in cocaine. At the top of the show, during “Happiness”, we catch Clara and Giorgio in a drug-fueled sex marathon in a seedy motel. Their passion for each other is some hater chemically induced. Their relationship feels like “chemsex” in the sense that it exists on a plane too hot to maintain, and hinges on fantasy. Their passion is like a drug in that it is an intense, euphoric connection that crashes hard when they have to face reality.
“What seems real and vivid often turns out to be the opposite. For some, the drug promotes the sensation of a super-intense interpersonal connection. Many users describe this as deeper and more powerful than any they have experienced. The irony is that these “connections” ultimately disintegrate and leave the user feeling lonely, disappointed, and exploited.”
- Dr. David Faucet on Chemsex
Design
So much of the action takes place around rectangular shaped furniture pieces, such as a bed, a table, or a billiards table. I think we can simplify the set by having a a big concrete slab in the center of the space to suggest all those furniture pieces, but also foreshadow a tomb for Fosca.
A curvaceous stage, with winding stairs and levels can play opposite the harsh corners of the tomb. The space wants to feel sexy, with plenty of exposed lighting instruments, but also foreboding. The concrete slab should be able to lift to different heights, sometimes disappearing entirely, and depending on the audience configuration, spin.
