Persona Metropolitana

Written & Directed by Annachiara Vispi

Choreographed by Giulia Macrì

NOoSPHERE Arts 520 Kingsland Ave, Brooklyn NY 11222

How did you get here? This simple yet highly philosophical question immersed the audience at the start of Persona Metropolitana. Like most people in NYC, they took public transit. The bus, the subway, and walking dominated the room. For a few minutes, Annachiara Vispi spoke with the audience about their origins, living preferences, and preferred mode of transportation before she introduced the main character of the show, Giulia Macrì. Giulia is the commuter in all of us living in big, crowded, hustling cities. Her journey was explicitly told through choreographed movement that depicts the ups and downs or emotional turmoil of life in the big cities of the world.

The narrative was told through different mediums. You’ve heard the saying "where words fail, music speaks,” but adding the elements of dance and movement as well as live footage on a projector screen on top of a narrator and music, you get something else. You get the power of creativity shooting right into hearts and minds. That is what Persona Metropolitana did. I must mention the use of color changing 3D lights that shone the full inner-workings of human emotions to the outer world.

The show started with that simple yet philosophical question and it only got deeper. The performance comments on these profound questions: How do we find our space in a crowded city? Who am I in this city? Who have I become? Has the monotonous nature of commuting dulled me? Will there be room for all of us? Giulia Macrì easily demonstrates the layered and deeply personal answers to these questions through unique dance styles. Hip hop, jazz, ballet, contemporary and lyrical were all included. She conveyed the mess of life by combining these genres in a small space, often restricted to a rectangle or square, much like a subway car.

There were 6 chairs set up to represent a commuter train. Strategically used throughout the performance, they added yet another element to immerse the audience into a familiar space. Sections of the show jumped to cities around the world and Giulia’s spot on these chairs jumped with them. London, Paris, New York, and Rome are only some of the cities named and were given a short bit of narrative for Giulia to journey through. Everyone in the audience, no matter where they were from, identified with Giulia’s character and felt a connection to the other commuters in the narratives Annachiara told.

Annachiara Vispi shone as a narrator, repeating certain words and speaking to the rhythm of the music. At points, it was as if poetry rang through the room at NOoSPHERE Arts. Ms. Vispi captivated the audience and led us through Giulia’s journey with pensive and effective finesse. The writing of this work made the audience not only think of ourselves, but question our existence and how technology has strayed us away from the simplicity of life. The thing about Giulia and Annachiara’s work is that it did not exclusively center on the individual itself. Giulia was often thinking about all of the other people of the world in the same situation as she was. Empathy and compassion drove this 60-minute original work, and it showed.

Performances of Persona Metropolitana in the In Scena Festival were Saturday, 5/11 @ 6 pm at NOoSPHERER Arts and Sunday, 5/12 @ 3 pm at Playwrights Downtown. Subtitles were present for those who do not speak or understand fluent Italian.

Presented by In Scena! Italian Theater Festival NY

Reviewed by Amanda Montoni.

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