Elizabeth Streb Spins Her ‘Whizzing Gizmo’; Rajika Puri Dives Into the Ganges

Tom Caravaglia

Elizabeth Streb’s “action heroes” in "Catapult"

Stephanie Berger

Rajika Puri and Dancers in "Tapasya"

Details

Streb Extreme Action
S.L.A.M.
51 North 1st Street, Williamsburg, 212-352-3101
Through May 17

Rajika Puri and Dancers
Joyce Soho
May 7 through 10

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More About

• Streb Lab for Action Mechanics
• Cassandre Joseph
• Sarah Donaldson
• Nirali Shastri
• Michael Schwartz

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In the most powerful performance of the evening, Puri appears in reddened darkness, speaking in a deep, guttural voice. Gradually she materializes—her face marked with ashes, her hair loose below a topknot, her shirt red, and red beads around her neck. She is more powerful, fiercer, and more frightening than the evil laughter heard on tape. In this scene, she is speaking-acting out the struggle between gods and demons for amrita, the nectar of immortality. I think I see her represent the two opposing forces pulling on a giant snake to churn up the sea of milk and release amritain its foam. I thought I heard her say that the waters of the Ganges turn to nectar every 12 years. And surely that’s Coleridge’s Kubla Khan that she’s quoting: “For he on honeydew hath fed and drunk the milk of Paradise.” Her colleagues, costumed and coiffed like her, assist in a ceremony involving a glowing trident, and at the end, the stage is flooded with blue light and images of water. Whew!

I run home, exhilarated, if slightly baffled, and try to find a path through the beguiling seductions, marital wrangles, deceptions, and holy manifestations that the gods of the Hindu pantheon thrive on. No sacred water for me, alas, just a refreshing dive into Google.