You cannot starve the people and not expect to pay.
You cannot lie to the people and not expect to pay.
You cannot ignore the people and not expect to pay!
A poignant and potent message coming to you at the pinnacle finale moment of Happenstance Theatre’s Barococo, though that’s getting…a-head…of myself. Devised and written by the ensemble, just one of several signature stamps upon any Happenstance show, Barococo explores airs and graces or perhaps the graceless airs of the aristocracy in revolutionary France in their movement-centric, homage-to-commedia, innovative explorative genre that they themselves are masters of. Barococo is a vivacious blend of visually stimulating, aurally titillating, and emotionally explorative theatre. And it’s got a slow-motion fight-scene.
The very visual essence of the show’s timestamp is brought vivaciously to life by the company’s Co-Artistic Director & Founder, Sabrina Mandell in her work with the production’s costumes. Fabricating the grandiloquent gowns, preposterous pompadours and wild wigs, Mandell (with the constructional aid of Nancy Mendez) weaves the vision of French aristocracy into the very threads of each costume piece. It’s a sumptuous visual feast fit for the upper, upper class high society figures who are wearing them. Even the piano-servant has an appropriately tailored couture and matching wig. It’s beyond grand, and one could spend a good ten minutes or more just marveling over these magnificent costumes.
Whilst music, played on Baroque period instruments, occurs in live-time predominantly from the house musician, Stephanie Baird, and occasionally by other members of the performance, there is some exemplary priming aural experiences happening prior to the start of the production, programmed by Madeline Oslejsek. Adding to the ambient experience, Lighting Designer John McAfee uses subtle and simple, but effective, cues to keep the audience in the world of Barococo, particularly for the macabre musical number at the show’s conclusion.
Each of the six performers has cultivated a character that speaks to the era in which the performance is set, all some noble level of aristocracy complete with mannerisms, gestures, body language, facial expressions, even vocal affectations that lean into the timestamp. And they play sublimely off one another. There is a group dynamic— they’re all, for a lack of better wording ‘trapped’, inside this home— and watching the interplay is artistry in motion, not to mention the motion of art that they imbue to their physicality and existential existence. There is this ‘dance of airs and graces’, which opens the performance, and is called back to with increasing frequency throughout the production, each character performing some menial, albeit self-amusing, task in repetition to the sounds of Senestino (Stephanie Baird) plucking away at the harpsichord. There’s also the iconic ‘slow-motion’ fight scene, a signature of any Happenstance Theatre production where mime-skill, slow-motion reaction and physical slapstick come hilariously into play, closer to the end of the performance that both titillates and intrigues. There are so many fascinating moments of minutia in this performance, group dynamic, one-on-one, and individually that it ensnares the mind and the theatrical senses for the full 70 minutes while simultaneously percolating questions about the statement of the piece, the meaning and intention behind it, and just what exactly it is that you’re watching.
There’s wit and intelligence as well as physicality and innuendo, the descriptors could be ceaseless in this comedy of airs and graces, faux pas and fancies. The beautifully bawdy scene between Sarah Olmsted Thomas’ Dauphine character and Stephanie Baird’s Senestino the court composer/musician character is delicious. The word play and innuendo, the Thomas embraces the overt opportunity to subtly slip cheek and tongue into retort is scintillating. Thomas’ physicality, when her character gets wedged under the harpsichord and ultimately ‘stuck’ is a scream and the way the pair build the gilded tension in that exchange is palpably pleasant. That whole moment culminates in this orgasmic musical affair with Gwen Grastorf and Alex Vernon gasping out sounds in soprano and falsetto, respectively, Sabrina Mandell clicking in with her castanets, and Mark Jaster soodling through with his lyre.
And watching Jaster play at charades is an exquisite experience. He deftly traverses the dynamic relationship between mind-body and facial-body expressions. And in this way, Jaster creates a masterclass study of mime, expressionism, action, rhythm and timing by infusing natural born comedic filaments, birthed of spatial comprehension and emotional intelligence, mingled with an equilibrium of period reverence and charming irreverence; it’s a juxtaposition like no other and nearly impossible to describe in all of its wondrous delights. His glorious facial expressions are perfection in the duel-challenge scene between Alex Vernon and Sabrina Mandell’s characters, which ultimately results in his being tapped in to duel with the fencing swords instead.
There’s no lack of sharpness to Sabrina Mandell’s tongue, particularly when barbing insults with Alex Vernon’s character and both find themselves moving effortlessly through the space be it with physical motion or with verbiage that carries forth the idea of movement. They have little reflective retorts to each of their respective characters. Vernon has a cocksure confidence about his character, particularly when trying to impress the oft-tantruming Sarah Olmsted Thomas, and Mandell lets her character’s exasperation shine through during the ‘dining scene’ with those poignant facial expressions. It’s an undefinable magic that is shared across the company, weaving itself in and out of intricate moments.
And poor Gwen Grastorf, playing this character of Constance, who is constantly doing the wrong thing, saying the wrong words, and being rather simple and literal minded. In the group dynamic, even the household musical servant is treated with more respect and regard than the Constance character, who does her darndest to fit in but never quite manages to measure up to the lofty levels of aristocracy present amongst the others. Of course they’re all equalized when it comes to attempting to ‘leave’ or as Vernon’s determined character announces, “go out for a walk.” The tenacity with which each of them approaches this unseen door and the terror, disgust, fear, worry, anxiety, and whole host of other unsettling emotions that plague their respective characters and overcomes that determination is awe-inspiring to watch. Such a radical shift in feeling, expression, physical tone, and movement in the breath and blink of an eye; it’s astonishing.
Barococo is a resplendent bounty of visual, aural, and emotionally stimulating theatrical intrigue with heaping heads of curiosity, perplexity, complexity, and humor. But don’t lose your head, tickets are still available, and should be procured at your earliest convenience before this performance…rolls along…to the ethereal wisp’d fate that awaits all stage productions.
Running Time: Approximately 70 minutes with no intermission
Barococo, a Happenstance Theatre production, plays through November 14th 2026 at Baltimore Theatre Project— 45 W. Preston Street in Baltimore, MD 21201. Tickets are available by calling the box office at 410-752-8558, at the door, or in advance online.
