PERMANENT RECORD
Denise LaGrassa
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Perhaps Atlas/Axis intentionally structured Permanent Record in this way, believing that in one state of mind one takes in the performance–absorbs it, so to speak–without being privy to all the nooks and crannies of intention, and in another state of mind studies the program notes. But I can’t imagine why these quotes and musings couldn’t be used in the performance. Then Atlas/Axis could bring out the irony of a program entry on a book called Events of 1966: “The year I was born. Also the year that the movie version of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf came out.” This might have eliminated the reader’s “Get over yourself!” reaction. As it stands, much of the program seems designed to call attention to the development of material–one has the sense of reading a wonderful script, of which the actor has chosen to use only a portion.
Throughout the performance Hall’s and Thompson’s faces were fascinating to watch because one felt they’d left their personalities behind, and though their emotions were revealed in flickering expressions, it seemed the performance had made them into more or less “pure” elements–they had transcended their own form and become strokes of motion, pure energy. This was greatly exciting, so much so that I could barely contain a whoop at the end of one segment of rigorous hip-hop and what looked like football calisthenics.
Denise LaGrassa’s one-woman performance, Bite Me!!!!!, is a charming but problematic showcase for a potpourri of characters who seem intended to emphasize LaGrassa’s premise, namely that she’s “loving for love’s sake,” as she says in her first and final free-verse monologues. However it’s obvious that this is not so much an exercise in writing as a vehicle for an actress that proves, “I can sing, I can dance, I can be a character, I can be a lead, I can be a debutante, I can be myself . . . ” LaGrassa dresses “down” in a black leotard top and baggy tapered trousers with black loafers: she seems to have taken great pains not to appear too attractive, but there’s little she can do to hide her leading-lady looks and powerful personality, which gives her what was once called “presence.”
