Reading The Tea

Go see this show!

After wondering along the sidewalk past twilight ball fields we arrived at the crumbling grandiose arches of McCarren Pool. Inside we perched on the empty pool edge while a stream-of-consciousness plot emerged, facilitated largely by plentiful and often bizarre costuming and props. A blonde girl with a flowing split-skirt teetered as she walked across an imaginary tightrope. Soon most of the cast of thirty hopped off the sides of the pool from among the audience and joined in. A group of men in suites marched around the perimeter and up a lifeguard stand in the middle. A man set up a kiddie pool and began filling it with water. Later he and another dancer, fully clothed, flung themselves in repeatedly. A shopping cart with a spinning disco light wheeled around with a group of dancers performing a stylized disco party motif trailing. On closer inspection it looked like a homeless person’s cart, stuffed with odds and ends. Someone rode by on a bicycle, a hunched southern belle shuffled around with a teacup and a huge hat. People with skateboards attached to their backs performed duets. A girl wearing a red formal and clutching two red suitcases dashed across the pool with the train extending across in a red carpet. The suitcases popped open and oranges spilled out. A disco ball came from seemingly no where and hovered while people joined in a rare moment of dancing unity — except for Miss Saturn, a “guest apparition” who hoola hooped on a lifeguard stand. For their many costume changes dancers hopped onto the side of the pool with the audience and switched shirts or grabbed props. A girl with long hair came close and told us about how much better time she was having than us, “floating!” After about an hour, the cast seemed to be wearing middle eastern costumes, and a street market appeared in front of us, complete with carpets and a hookah. One by one audience members hopped down and joined the cast, wandering around the pool. After a while they formed a ring around the outside and took a bow, and we wandered out of the dream, back to the L train.