Don’t be fooled by the advertisements picturing the (Some)Body actors in the nude. This production is absolutely the wrong kind of hot.
Hailing from Russia, five members of the PosleSlov Theatre company strip down in C Aquila at the Roman Eagle Lodge, exploring whether the body has a soul and its implication on the human condition. Unfortunately, the discrepancy between the amount of sweat on the actors’ bodies and the amount of sweat on the audience members’ bodies outshined the dramatic narrative of the performance altogether. With the temperature of the room high enough to inspire beads of sweat on the motionless backs of the seated audience, the venue would have done better to have renovated the space into a sauna for the festival.
The reversal of roles between the actors and audience with respect to comfortable body temperature and skin texture was incredibly distracting and perplexing. The monotone speed at which the nude performers moved was too slow to produce a visible glisten of sweat, whereas the motionlessness of the clothed audience failed to be enough protection against the uncomfortable damp.
This deviation from typical theatre form regarding room temperature to clothing ratio was, quite frankly, annoying. It was ridiculous that the actors got to be free from oppressive, sticky layers in the heat––let alone the fact that they never even broke a sweat in solidarity with the unfortunate audience opposite them, left to suffer constricted by social norms and polyester blends. Taunted by and excluded from nudity under absurd environmental circumstances, potential future audiences would fare best taking their money (and their clothes) elsewhere.