The 40-Year-Old Ballerino
Written & Performed by Chris Davis; Directed by MK Tuomanen
wild project, |195 E 3rd St, New York, NY 10009
April 6 - April 20, 2025
Photo Credit by Emilie Krause
Theatre festivals are like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get.
The FRIGID Festival reflects approximately 65 shows will run in rep at 5 different venues. Shows will run a bit under an hour. There will be one-acts and bits of longer works in progress; dramas, comedies and musicals.
A one man confessional (with the aid of a ballet barre), The 40-Year-Old Ballerino, written and starring Chris Davis is currently playing at The Wild Project. During the 50 minute play, Davis discusses addiction, replacing vices (drugs, alcohol, relational codependency) with “healthier” addictions: giving himself over to his craft and the existential problems that remain even as love is found and love is lost.
Davis’ athletic yet simultaneously stilted movements are accompanied by an informal conversational storytelling style. A story that takes the audience from the start to the bitter end of a competitive relationship, also touches on what it means to grow up in the 90’s (David tells us he was born in 1982), dating a person from a more youthful generation, horse riding in Japan and existential and romantic limbo. There are moments of humor in the delivery, yet as the play progressed, this reviewer found himself asking: what is the point of it all?
That question, as it turns out is the same question that the 43-year-old ballerino is perhaps also trying to distract himself from: our human tendency to distract ourselves from the simple pain of being human: whether with love, drugs, hobbies, Modern Family, Philadelphia or cassette tapes from our youth.
What is the point of it all? While, the show started with focus, when Davis later broke the fourth wall, this also pierced the potency of the messaging. While the artistry was there, the show could have done with more focus in the latter half of the production. Still, take a chance on The 40-Year-Old Ballerino. The show touches on the very human need for attention and distraction. This reviewer felt both sensations while watching the production. Maybe that’s the point.
Click HERE for tickets.
Review by Brian Connor.
Published by Theatre Beyond Broadway on April 8th, 2025. All rights reserved.