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Writer's pictureJen Norris

Review: Sharp & Fine, A Detective Story, October 18-20, 2024, Z Space, San Francisco

The secrecies and vagaries of love collide, with a missing person case in Sharp & Fine’s latest “play for dance” A Detective Story at Z Space October 18 -20.  The first mystery being, what ever is a “play for dance?”


It is a unique form of theater which relies utilizes both the narrative storytelling of a play in combination with contemporary dance movement to reveal the deepest truths of its characters. A Detective Story is crafted by sisters Megan and Shannon Kurashige, the creative team leading Sharp & Fine, who with help from Assistant Sonja Dale serve as authors, dramaturges and choreographers.    “Deviser-performers” Charmaine Butcher, Julie Crothers, Caitlin Hicks, Molly Levy, and Hadassah Perry, poetically embody and confidently give voice to this play about absent lovers, both those that are physically lost to us and others who may be psychically absent despite being materially present.  Well-spoken actors and powerful dancers, they move seamlessly between the two modes of performative communication.  Audio Tech Jacob Felix Heule is the unsung hero of this enterprise, muting and voicing the lavalier microphones each performer wears in perfect harmony with the script. His skills at the sound board mean not a word is missed, nor is a danced section flawed by an open microphone’s breathiness.


Charmaine Butcher in A Detective Story. Photo by Hillary Goidell


Some sections are spoken and others are fully danced. Striking a balance between these disparate performance forms is a fine art, which Sharp & Fine attains for the most part, the possible exception being the closing ensemble dance, whose extended length and unapologetic patness seem too predictable for a show that begins with a bang.


The mystery begins with the shadowy silhouettes of a rag-tag circus band parading about in a thick dreamlike cloud on the horizon.  A clarinet carries the melody, over the plucked strings of one carrying a cello, and amidst the chaotic chatter of stringed rattles shaken insistently by the dancers.  From here on out the music is left to the professionals, as an evocative original jazz score by Jordan Glenn is performed live by the composer and musicians Ben Davis, Cory Wright and Matt Wrobel. The musical contributions, which primarily support the danced portions of the show, compellingly amplify the story telling.


Perry in detective-drag iconic Fedora and trench coat, portrays an affable and self-aware amateur gumshoe, eager for a crime-solving adventure to spice up her stable but predictable home life. A clever narrative arc by the Kurashiges, keeps us on our toes as red-herrings rise temptingly and false-truths confound us. 


Hadassah Perry in A Detective Story. Photo by Hillary Goidell


The tropes of a typical detective procedural drama are charmingly utilized, including an old-school typewriter, a bentwood coatrack, and a dial telephone complete with a curly cord. The beam of an ill-used flashlight ironically blinds us as it searches the audience for what is lost. A pervasive purple haze hovers as set pieces and props come and go.  


Crime solving always incudes pursuit of several people who might have contributed to the mystery.  Perry’s first interviews take place in the living room of a female couple, the newspaper engrossed Hicks and her antsy spouse, Levy.  Struggling to agree upon the proper words to tell the story of their typical nighttime rituals in words, the duo resorts instead to acting and dancing their tale. Their intimacy is revealed in Hicks’s tender unbraiding of Levy’s hair. But the fury Levy feels in Hicks’s unerring focus on the paper gripped tightly in her hands, erupts as Levy twists her mate by the shoulders in a bow for attention. 


Caitlin Hicks, left, and Molly Levy in A Detective Story. Photo by Hillary Goidell


As a reminder that nothing is what it seems, worklights flood the stage and the performers break character to give each other choreographic notes, before retrying a belly hug gesture in a variety of ways. This theatrical flourish works well and recalls Perry’s expository opening remarks in which it isn’t clear if she is a person playing a detective or a person playing a person who is playing a detective.  Maybe we are all always playing a role in relationship to those we love or even to ourselves.


Lighting Designer Allen Willner evokes the narrow confines of a mid-20th Century private eye’s office, with diagonal slats of warm light through venetian blinds falling across the small wooden desk at which Perry types. Here an imposing and alluring Crothers appears unbidden with a tale-to-tell about a regrettable, and perhaps irresistible, habit of monster-making love matches. Crother reports her latest monster creation is Butcher, the petite blond dancer whose transporting opening solo opens the show and whose subsequent disappearance has been the Detective Perry’s mystery to solve.


As the play progresses the field of inquiry expands. Are we seeking a person or a monster?  Does all consuming love create monsters of us?  Must we seek newness in order to transform?  Can another person make us happy or must we do that for ourselves? What is most valuable, the grand display or the consistency of everyday familiarity?  


Levy and Hicks dance together, collapsing atop, catching, and carrying one another. They are each other’s missing piece.  When parting ways, Levy’s experiment with solo flight introduces more asymmetry and self-reliance as she balances on an extended arm, her body a long diagonal. Various couples offer versions of the love duet, mirroring the weight-bearing and soaring phrases from Levy and Hicks’s couple’s dance, perhaps a reminder of the commonality of the languages of love.


Butcher reappears in monster form, bedecked in feathery vest and mask and floating above the fogbank.  Sitting on a bus stop bench, the monster becomes almost human during a philosophical conversation about love and loss with Levy, who is searching for her missing spouse.  A dance of support and connection plays out between the two. Their dance begins slowly, moving side by side getting to know one another. The seeds of love are so often planted during friendship; some take root immediately, others years later and most never bloom fully. Their destiny together unclear, as the Monster carries a cradled Hicks off into the darkness.


Along the way an audience volunteer portrays the detective’s husband. Enlisted first as a maker of sandwiches, this conscribed actor plays a large non-speaking role, called to the stage three or four times along the way.  He shares a cozy restaurant meal and slow dance with the detective, and is the patient recipient of her final dance of contrition in which Perry lays her head at his feet in an offering of appreciation and acceptance for the little ways in which he shows he has consistently demonstrated his love.


One of A Detective Story’s narrative threads suggests that when one becomes a monster at the hands of love, one loses access to one’s most cherished memories. This mystery remains unsolved for me, as I couldn’t make sense of this concept within my own experiences.


The excellent dancing, consistently audible and engaging storytelling, high production values and evocative live music provide for an entertaining evening, though I suspect shaving 10 minutes off its 100-minute runtime would making the whole endeavor shine even brighter.


Review by Jen Norris, published October 19, 2024


Molly Levy, left, and Caitlin Hicks in A Detective Story. Photo by Hillary Goidell

________________________________

Credits:

October 18-20, 2024 Z Space – 450 Florida Street, San Francisco


A Detective Story is Sharp & Fine’s newest “play for dance,” bringing together visually stunning storytelling, exuberant choreography, and live music to turn the classic formula of the detective genre inside out. Reveling in the well-worn tropes of mystery stories—trench coats, confessioA cast ns, typewriters, red herrings—plus a dose of playful audience instruction, A Detective Story follows a detective as her investigation of a missing person turns into a surreal and deeply human examination of the choices we make for the people and things we love.


Co-Directors: Megan & Shannon Kurashige

Deviser-Performers: Charmaine Butcher, Julie Crothers, Caitlin Hicks, Molly Levy, Hadassah Perry

Deviser-Collaborator: Sonja Dale

Composer: Jordan Glenn

Musicians: Ben Davis, Jordan Glenn, Cory Wright, Matt WrobelLighting Design: Allen Willner

Costume Design: Emily Kurashige

Stage Manager: Christina Larson

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