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The Cotillion
Illustration by Ojima Abalaka
The full title of “The Cotillion,” Colette Robert’s new play with music, is “The Harriet Holland Social Club Presents the 84th Annual Star-Burst Cotillion in the Grand Ballroom of the Renaissance Hotel,” and that exaggerated, super-elegant, ultrarefined sensibility—the centerpieces are tasteful, the gowns are divine—conveys the aesthetic for the playwright’s blistering, all-caps discussion of Black élite debutante culture. In this co-production from New Georges and the Movement Theatre Company (at A.R.T./New York Theatres, through May 27), we spend an evening with six poised (or trying to be poised) seventeen-year-olds as they make their long-awaited début, all while their chapter’s president (Akyiaa Wilson, excellent in moral decay) undermines them with colorist, oligarchic, puritanical concerns. Robert, who also directs, destabilizes the reality in the ballroom: characters accidentally refer to “auctions” during the ugliest parts of the beauty parade, and the world glitches and stutters like a horror film. As much as Robert wants to show us the skull beneath the updo, though, she’s also dedicated to the loveliness of the event: songs (written by Dionne McClain-Freeney) decorate the play, performed by a glittering doo-wop quartet, who sing about sex, power, and Blackness with a sangfroid the teen-agers have yet to discover.
— Helen Shaw
The Cotillion
VULTURE/New York mag:
“What guarantees are there for these girls in a racist society, even if they’re “seen” as refined? ... The Cotillion approaches these questions in an elliptical manner, doing its own acidic waltz. Colette Robert, who wrote and directed, has given it a CVS receipt of a title that keys you in to her absurdist sense of humor... There’s something irresistible in being, you know, seen.”
The Cotillion
The Daily Beast | Read Full Review
In ‘The Cotillion,’ Black Debutantes Fight to Dance to Their Own Tunes
The Cotillion
The Front Row Center | Read Full Review
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
NYTimes Review | Read Full Review
"The other players handle multiple roles with dexterity, humor, and heart – avuncular and authoritative, youthful and boyish, romantic and tragic." -Jon Sobel, Blogcritics.org | Read Full Review
"A superbly talented ensemble..." -Kristen Morale, Broadwayworld.com | Read Full Review
"IT IS TRULY A BEAUTIFUL STORY, AND BLESSED UNREST'S PRODUCTION BRINGS FORTH THE PLOT'S HEARTWARMING NATURE WITH SUCH FERVOR, INCORPORATING INTO IT A BIT OF LAUGHTER AND SPIRIT THAT, ALTHOUGH EXPRESSED IN WAYS DICKENS MIGHT NOT HAVE FORETOLD, BRINGS THIS STORY TO NEW LIFE...MUCH IN THE SAME WAY SCROOGE HAS HIS OWN MOMENTS OF REVELATION.... A SUPERBLY TALENTED ENSEMBLE."
~ KRISTEN MORALE, BROADWAY WORLD
"Director and choreographer Jessica Burr has created a number of dazzling moments with her precise unison of expressive staging, movement and dance. With only a few vintage trunks and a door, all on wheels, Ms. Burr achieves many vivid stage pictures. Walking up a flight of imaginary stairs is a thrilling display of mime. Burr’s work with the ensemble, most of whom play several roles is excellent with their colorful characterizations as evidence."
"Claire Fort has a serene dignity as Bob Cratchit’s wife Helen. Wearing a lighted wreath on her head, Ms. Fort is also a spritely Ghost of Christmas Past and is one of the charitable solicitors." -Darryl Reilly, theatrescene.net | Read Full Review
Brooklyn Bridge by Melissa James Gibson
"Some neighbors are normal (Claire Fort’s compassionate Talidia) while others are wacky...but every interaction offers a more revealing peek into Sasha’s conflicted emotional state." -Dusty Somers, The Seattle Times | Read Full Review
"..a warm and compassionate Claire Fort" - Miryam Gordon, Miryam's Theatre Musings | Read Full Review
"The cast of Brooklyn Bridge is an amazing ensemble" - Kelly Rogers Flynt, Seattle's Child | Read Full Review
Illustration by Ojima Abalaka
The full title of “The Cotillion,” Colette Robert’s new play with music, is “The Harriet Holland Social Club Presents the 84th Annual Star-Burst Cotillion in the Grand Ballroom of the Renaissance Hotel,” and that exaggerated, super-elegant, ultrarefined sensibility—the centerpieces are tasteful, the gowns are divine—conveys the aesthetic for the playwright’s blistering, all-caps discussion of Black élite debutante culture. In this co-production from New Georges and the Movement Theatre Company (at A.R.T./New York Theatres, through May 27), we spend an evening with six poised (or trying to be poised) seventeen-year-olds as they make their long-awaited début, all while their chapter’s president (Akyiaa Wilson, excellent in moral decay) undermines them with colorist, oligarchic, puritanical concerns. Robert, who also directs, destabilizes the reality in the ballroom: characters accidentally refer to “auctions” during the ugliest parts of the beauty parade, and the world glitches and stutters like a horror film. As much as Robert wants to show us the skull beneath the updo, though, she’s also dedicated to the loveliness of the event: songs (written by Dionne McClain-Freeney) decorate the play, performed by a glittering doo-wop quartet, who sing about sex, power, and Blackness with a sangfroid the teen-agers have yet to discover.
— Helen Shaw
The Cotillion
VULTURE/New York mag:
“What guarantees are there for these girls in a racist society, even if they’re “seen” as refined? ... The Cotillion approaches these questions in an elliptical manner, doing its own acidic waltz. Colette Robert, who wrote and directed, has given it a CVS receipt of a title that keys you in to her absurdist sense of humor... There’s something irresistible in being, you know, seen.”
The Cotillion
The Daily Beast | Read Full Review
In ‘The Cotillion,’ Black Debutantes Fight to Dance to Their Own Tunes
The Cotillion
The Front Row Center | Read Full Review
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
NYTimes Review | Read Full Review
"The other players handle multiple roles with dexterity, humor, and heart – avuncular and authoritative, youthful and boyish, romantic and tragic." -Jon Sobel, Blogcritics.org | Read Full Review
"A superbly talented ensemble..." -Kristen Morale, Broadwayworld.com | Read Full Review
"IT IS TRULY A BEAUTIFUL STORY, AND BLESSED UNREST'S PRODUCTION BRINGS FORTH THE PLOT'S HEARTWARMING NATURE WITH SUCH FERVOR, INCORPORATING INTO IT A BIT OF LAUGHTER AND SPIRIT THAT, ALTHOUGH EXPRESSED IN WAYS DICKENS MIGHT NOT HAVE FORETOLD, BRINGS THIS STORY TO NEW LIFE...MUCH IN THE SAME WAY SCROOGE HAS HIS OWN MOMENTS OF REVELATION.... A SUPERBLY TALENTED ENSEMBLE."
~ KRISTEN MORALE, BROADWAY WORLD
"Director and choreographer Jessica Burr has created a number of dazzling moments with her precise unison of expressive staging, movement and dance. With only a few vintage trunks and a door, all on wheels, Ms. Burr achieves many vivid stage pictures. Walking up a flight of imaginary stairs is a thrilling display of mime. Burr’s work with the ensemble, most of whom play several roles is excellent with their colorful characterizations as evidence."
"Claire Fort has a serene dignity as Bob Cratchit’s wife Helen. Wearing a lighted wreath on her head, Ms. Fort is also a spritely Ghost of Christmas Past and is one of the charitable solicitors." -Darryl Reilly, theatrescene.net | Read Full Review
Brooklyn Bridge by Melissa James Gibson
"Some neighbors are normal (Claire Fort’s compassionate Talidia) while others are wacky...but every interaction offers a more revealing peek into Sasha’s conflicted emotional state." -Dusty Somers, The Seattle Times | Read Full Review
"..a warm and compassionate Claire Fort" - Miryam Gordon, Miryam's Theatre Musings | Read Full Review
"The cast of Brooklyn Bridge is an amazing ensemble" - Kelly Rogers Flynt, Seattle's Child | Read Full Review