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By Catherine Tharin
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Published on January 21, 2024
Photo by Chloe Apple Seldman
"Rapunzel Rants" and "Mami, El Ogre, y Pedrito," a Rant in Progress
Alice Klugherz and Pedro J. Rosado Jr present Two Fairytale Rants, a Dance-ical beyond Grimm
Rapunzel Rants and Mami, El Ogre, y Pedrito (Mommy, The Ogre and Little Pedro), A Fairytale Rant-in-Progress
Written, directed, choreographed and costumed by Alice Klugherz with the assistance of the cast
Performers: Pedro J. Rosado Jr., Emily Vetsch and Alice Klugherz
Music: Alan Menken, Glenn Slater, Jack White, Frank Sinatra, Bernard Herrmann, Joel McNeely, Camille Saint-Saëns, Eddie Cooley and Otis Blackwell
Sound design and engineering: Allan Hunter
Lighting: Hernan Acuña
Voiceovers: Alice Klugherz, Irene Morawski, and Judith Shahn
Date of performance: December 3, 2023
Alice Klugherz’s Rapunzel Rants, comprised of seven madcap scenes in 30 minutes, reflects the vagaries of an aging feminist. An update of the classic Rapunzel fairytale, this production falls into the lineage of Klugherz’s witty, autobiographical, idiosyncratic (and sometimes grouchy) movement theater pieces, which she has presented for over three decades. (Her first production in 1988, was titled The Man Who Hated Cats.)
A fairytale for our times, Rapunzel Rants confronts women’s inequality at the hands of the tower-lockers. Klugherz’s barrage of discomforting and frank words, both humorous and insightful, hits us square in our truth barometers. Scripted, with short sections of movement, the piece unabashedly expresses the all-to-often unspoken perspective that, despite civilization’s advancements, towers that exclude women or lock them inside, still exist.
Strains of Nat King Cole’s 1952 Unforgettable followed by a Rapunzel show tune from Disney’s animated cartoon, Tangled (2010), act as an introduction to the show. The stage quiets before two figures blanketed in white fabric revolve around one another in a Loie Fuller-like dance, voluminous fabric flowing. The fabric wafts to the floor to reveal the gangly Fairesta, a fairy-figure charmingly performed by Emily Vetsch, who doubles as Rapunzel. Klugherz plays an older Rapunzel and a Witch, while Pedro J. Rosado Jr. transforms from the Stage Manager, clutching his script, to a Ballet Prince, jumping and frolicking around the women.
“The [original] Rapunzel story was a collective unconscious response to women locked in nunneries, trapped in unwanted marriages and more,” Klugherz recounts. Present day women are no longer physically locked in towers, she explains in the guise of the frazzle-haired, gnarled-fingered Witch at her cauldron. But, women “internalize the bitterness” of subjugation endured for generations, and that, mixed with “trickle-down Puritanism,” says the Stage Manager, "keeps a woman in her place."
In an especially effective scene, Vetsch’s Rapunzel, the Witch, and the Stage Manager furiously recount the tale with layered rapid-fire accuracy. Vetsch becomes Fairesta, who then morphs into a swan. A natural comedian, Vetsch dies a fluttering death only to reawaken to victoriously strut about the stage, a metaphor for our hoped-for “feminist tsunami,” says Vetsch.
Colorful and direct, Klugherz has created thought provoking works like Rapunzel Rants year after year despite a lack of robust funding. Not exactly overlooked, but not overwhelmingly supported, Klugherz falls into a category of women dedicating their lives to making art against all odds. How fortunate for us that she continues.
Pedro J. Rosado Jr. also shared Mami, El Ogre, y Pedrito (Mommy, The Ogre and Little Pedro), a provocative 30-minute take on Jack in the Beanstalk. It's a fairytale-in-progress from a Puerto Rican perspective, to premiere later in 2024.
