Bumping Umbrellas

Kymberly Harris Riggs's Bumping Umbrellas has been described as a surreal exploration of seduction and temptation that uses the movement and rhythm of the tango to inform the text. A text as incomprehensibly messy as this one imposes an awfully big burden on the tango. By adding unflatteringly harsh lighting, a surplus of props and costumes that got in the way of the movement with hilarious but certainly unintended mayhem, inept performances, and cluttered staging (Kate Marks blocked half of the show in a dark corner of the crowded front room of Don't Tell Mama, virtually invisible to half of the audience), many other descriptive words could have been used here, but seductive, pleasurable, or even stage-worthy were not among them. The postcard, however, was very well-designed.

(Featuring Bat Parnass, Dan Kostoriano, and Kymberly Harris Riggs. Costumes, lights, and sound uncredited.)