Moving and delightful Memorabilia at Teatro Visto

Jean Claudio’s solo work Memorabilia now on view at Filament Theatre is a triumph of physical performance art.  Nearly wordless and somewhat abstract, it is a sweet and deep journey.  Claudio arrives, a consummate acrobat with impressive skills, on a set that is an art installation: a perfectly curated cross between a highly organized hoarder house and a wildly inventive crafters den that is a visual feast of ideas, textures and potentially meaningful objects, from ancient toys, to antique technology, to gardening, to contraptions including an old set of fold out opera glasses that appears to be a companion.  In one corner is a fantastical conglomeration of electronics and old tv sets that make up a kind of memory computer machine.  I am not sure if Scenic designer Lauren Nichols or properties designers Shokie Tseumah or the prop consultants Jamie Auer, Wendy Madrigal and Alonso Galue gets credits for this compelling world, but it is all tied together with the projections of Liviu Parare and Eme Ospina-López. 

Director and co creator Raquel Torre has protagonist Jean Claudio moving calmly and  with deep intention through the 80 minute show remembering, or not, serving coffee to audience members and trying not to get caught in drawers, flipping and flying and constantly checking in with the contraption which assesses or brings up the memory on the screens.  He is a gifted clown in the classic sense, funny and sad.  My companion and I never did agree if it was he who was suffering from the beginnings of forgetfulness (dementia?) or if he was the caregiver or survivor of caring for a loved one who was forgetting: the case was made for both options, but it was stunningly moving for me, because there is so much loss in trying to remember for several people in my life right now. It is a touching show as well as an impressive one, but it hasn’t got a plot for those of you who need one.  It is an evening filled with love, and with images and snippets which layer upon each other and leave the audience to tell their own story.

Teatro Vista’s Memorabilia is playing Wednesdays through Sundays through June 29th at the Filament Theatre at 4041 N. Milwaukee in Chicago.  For tickets and more information go to    https://www.teatrovista.org/memorabilia

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