Photo Credit: Andy Walsh
A man’s long coat, straw hat, winter scarf and cane were neatly arranged center stage on the floor of the performance space at the Charles Allis Art Museum. They’ll serve as talismans of the great architect Frank Lloyd Wright in Mrs. Wrights, an extraordinary solo performance by dance artist Jenni Reinke, produced by Quasimondo Physical Theatre.
Reinke, a Quasimondo co-founder and ensemble member, created the hour-long work as an MFA thesis project at UW-Milwaukee and has been touring it nationally to high praise. This is its first Milwaukee run. It’s a challenging work and a virtuoso performance that will stay with me a long time. I was continually fascinated, sometimes mystified, sometimes frighteningly connected. There’s good comedy, too, as when Reinke—one arm in the long coat—plays both Wright and his mistress in bed.
Reinke appears initially as Wright’s third wife and widow, Olgivanna, herself a dancer, writer and composer. It’s just after Wright’s death in 1959, we learn from her words. Olgivanna was also a spiritualist, and with the help of several costume pieces from a coat rack upstage, she’ll summon into being four more women to whom Wright was tied: his mother, his first wife, second wife and mistress. Reinke embodies each of them, speaking in several accents and dancing in several styles. Taken altogether, I want to call the work expressionist since each character’s state of being was so vividly displayed. Reinke is a powerful dancer and formidable stage presence. I could imagine her in a line leading back to the great women founders of modern dance.
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She was convincing in a range of ages. A rocking chair, the other set piece, became a precarious dance stage; the back became prison bars. The piece is about these women in their time with Wright. We see him through them. He wasn’t an ideal husband. He could design a house but couldn’t make a home. Olgivanna seemed the sturdiest. She didn’t marry for him for love, she tells us, but for her work. He helped her found the Taliesin Fellowship program.
If I have a complaint, it’s one I often have when dancers speak: it’s sometimes hard to understand the words, especially with good music and meaningful movement happening simultaneously. There are a lot of lives and stories to follow here. Happily, the curtain call segues to an informative talk back.
Weekends through Nov. 16 at the Charles Allis Art Museum, 1801 N. Prospect Ave.
