CORNINGWORKS GLUE FACTORY PROJECT six a breast - the absurd life of women

CORNINGWORKS presents Pittsburgh’s 12^th annual GLUE FACTORY PROJECT — original full-evening length dancetheater productions created on internationally & nationally acclaimed performers over the age of 40.  six a breast, with choreography & performances by BETH CORNING along with this season’s two guest performing artists: Sally Rousse, and Laurie Van Wieren.   Co-presented by, and performed at The New Hazlett Theater, SEPTEMBER 6 – 10, 2017.   5 performances only.

six a breast, explores the absurdities of life’s daily parade. The evening’s format plays off the series of rapid-fire skits made popular by the late 1960’s TV comedy show LAUGH-IN. In 6 a breast, however, the wit is more nuanced and layered. Each poignant vignette reveals subliminal themes of social manners and mannerisms — the emotional walking on eggshells, the masquerade of public etiquette, the ‘unspoken’ ridiculousness of social intercourse, juggling, and requisite demands of commercial consumerism. An evening of sharp irony and salient farce, 6 a breast encapsulates the absurdity of all our lives, no matter what the gender, but women … we got the ‘mother lode’… backwards and in heels.

Corning culminates this cascade of vaudevillian ‘scenes’ with a deeply touching, very short, physical theater work by the inimitable Samuel Beckett. COME AND GO presents three women sitting abreast on a bench, their round-robin conversation consisting of only 130 spoken words. In classic Beckett style, the opulent silences and brilliant gestures speak far more articulately than words ever could. This iconic trio serves to both meld and magnify six a breast’s, lingering impact. Corning’s has used Beckett in a recent GFP, his works’ rhythms and complexity offering a fine partner for Corningworks’ stage sensibilities.   For Corning it’s like having another guest artist and mentor with whom to “duet”.