New Troy Foundry Theatre play is bold and dreamlike
Among the pleasures of watching the boundarypushing company Troy Foundry Theatre is seeing actors grow as a result of being exposed to TFT’S methods and aesthetic.
This effect is on exceptional view in the performance of Angelique Powell in “Models of Perfection,” a world premiere by Brooklyn playwright Katie Pedro being presented in a downtown parking lot through next weekend.
A local actor who has a day job in development with Playhouse Stage Company, Powell is making her debut with Troy Foundry Theatre, and she’s described being at once daunted and thrilled by her experience working on “Models of Perfection.” An intuitive, appealing actor with an exciting ability to open her characters’ emotions to audiences, Powell shows us feelings so accessible and real that we immediately connect with her.
This is especially welcome because “Models of Perfection” doesn’t make that easy. It is “devised theater,” meaning the script serves as a framework, but performers and their creative partners — who more conventionally would be considered directors and designers — are encouraged to change as much as they deem necessary based on what they learn during the rehearsal process.
Thus Pedro is credited with having “created” “Models of Perfection,” while Troy Foundry’s co-founder and artistic director, David Girard, and Philadelphia-based director Niya Colbert, a veteran of this type of theater, are listed as having “devised and curated” the play.
All are resolute in their determination that the story not make sense in the expected ways. “Models of Perfection” operates on the slightly hallucinatory level of dream logic. Its plot, if it can be said to have one, defies brief description, and attempts to do so only invite more questions, like, “If these are children, even of an unspecified age, and they have lived their whole lives on a stoop, how does the sister (Powell) end up running for political office?”
The audience, totaling about 35 and seated around small tables, faces the brick wall of the Trojan Hotel, where the siblings’ stoop has been built. The young girl lives there with her slightly older brother (Iniabasi Nelson). It’s an abstract setting into which the larger world intrudes in the form of a landlord intent on eviction and other outside forces (James Alexander, in multiple roles).
Their routinized life disrupted and the sister compelled to explore what’s beyond, the brother struggles to adapt. Nelson’s performance isn’t as accomplished as Powell’s; he’s often obviously acting instead of being. But, because this is a Troy Foundry production — complete with nonstandard setting, nonlinear narrative and non-boring performances — it’s all of a piece, complete. When it’s over, you know you’ve seen something worthwhile, even if you’d have a hard time explaining exactly what it was.