Father On? Yes, Please and Thank You!

Scott Wells and Christoph Schutz in FATHER ON (Photo: David Papas)

Leigh Donlan reports from ODC Theater in San Francisco:
 

Bravo, Father On: an honest performance filled with grace and humility, fine craftsmanship and emotional intelligence, a well-rounded vision of 21st-century fatherhood.

Comprised of thirteen segments, the cast of five men, all world-class performers – Stephen Buescher, Rajendra Serber, Christoph Schutz, and choreographers Sheldon B. Smith and Scott Wells – took the audience on a darkly humorous and delicately profound journey of the ups and downs of paternity, beginning with “Poker Night,” a lively card game in which four of the men reflected, in words and in dance, on the impact of fatherhood on their lives. Topics ranged from cloth diapers being a way of life in Berkeley, to deprivations of sleep, sex, money and time. Trying to be adults, they couldn’t help but slip into childish behavior, illustrating the extreme similarities between the two.

“Sperm Folk Dance” was ingenious. Schutz’s character tells the story of his vasectomy and his feelings about consequently being forever known as “stepdad,” while the other men lay on the stage floor, feet against a wall, randomly springing off and sliding across the floor, squirming like sperm. This evolved into a fervent Hungarian folk dance portrayal of the almighty sperm race, against the backdrop of a video simulation of actual sperm racing towards an egg. The segment ended with Schutz spotlit, playing a sad trombone solo.

A brief 1950‘s TV commercial from Ford Motors promoted the many conveniences of the station wagon, heralding a scene shift to “Modern Man,” in which Buescher discussed the complexities of growing up in south-side Chicago as a black child adopted by white parents. He pointed out that, when his own son, Atlas, was born, “I was meeting my first blood relative,” one of many profoundly beautiful moments of the evening.
 

The cast of Scott Wells’ and Sheldon B. Smith’s FATHER ON (Photo: David Papas)

Rockabye’s lullaby version of Led Zeppelin’s “Over the Hills and Far Away,” spurred the men to dance innocently and gently – like children – using soft contact improvisation, an insightful display of how much of our inspiration in dance is drawn from the purity of children’s movement. This evolved into a rough game of touch-football, during which one father (Smith) twists his ankle and lets out a colorful slew of curses while rolling on the floor in pain, groaning “it’s so much easier when you’re younger.” Realizing that his child had been in ear range, he amusingly tries to explain why daddies and mommies say bad words. These kaleidoscopic moments conveyed so simply the multiple realities that coexist when parenting.

Meanwhile, the stage had become a disaster zone, furniture and props overturned, spilled, torn and broken. In a clever cameo appearance, ODC Theater Director Christy Bolingbroke storms in and catches the cast in the act of trying to make repairs. She castigates them: “…these people have come to see a show!” and threatens “…if I have to come back in here, we are all going home!” Feeling bad, the men mope about and cry. Cue a tranquil video of a solitary man fly-fishing, and the men were slowly lured into naps.
 

The cast of FATHER ON confront the mess they’ve made on stage (Photo: David Papas)

The absurdity of “Father Seminar,” in which the men were reluctant participants in a ‘New Dad’ workshop, left the audience in stitches. Smith, the inspirational leader, attempts to convey breast feeding tips – like how to help a newborn find the nipple – via role-playing. Not surprisingly, the men become bewildered and disturbed, while one of the role-playing “moms” (Schutz) is a bit too eager to have his baby (Wells) find his teat.

In the “Pink brain, blue brain” segment, two men (Buescher and Serber) enacted child behaviors in a form of charades, while the others tried to guess their gender, a thoughtful commentary on how often parents unknowingly ascribe a gender to a child’s behavior, and how often they get it wrong.

The last segment, “Good night,” ended with a lullaby played by the multi-talented cast – Schutz on trombone, Wells on classical guitar, Smith on a toy piano, Buescher on the rattle and Serber on the cymbals. It was very touching, and felt like a goodnight kiss to the audience.

An inspiring and well-integrated performance, from which, at the risk of sounding sexist and offending my entire gender, I wish more women choreographers would take a lesson. Lately, I’ve witnessed too many performances that subject the audience to endless ramblings and attempts at over-explanation. The efficiency of craftsmanship in this production was refreshing, 65 minutes of pure delight, not a wasted moment. Could this be, in part, because men and women think differently, and approach the construction of a dance differently? I prefer that choreographers aim for brevity and leave us wanting more rather than less. Father On is the kind of dance theatre that will bring people back for more, which is ultimately what we strive for in the dance community. Whether you think these men have got the whole parenting thing down, or wish they’d go back and study the manuals a bit more thoroughly, the strengths of this choreographic work are instructive.