Technological and Human experiment at Neo-Futurists

Ryn Hardiman’s striking experimental hour-long solo work The Complex Whole So Formed incorporates dance, a granular story of a medical and identity journey, as well as video and sound, into a kafka- esque journey to have breasts removed in the 21st century. It’s an intensely personal and darkly comedic story that is as much about fitting into the queerness spectrum as it is an indictment of the shit show that is the American “health care” system. Physicality and vulnerability juxtapose against a wall of complex electronic equipment and Hardiman mostly performs within a scrim protected space that features white noise visuals.  I will note that for some of us reading the type was difficult, but the concept was obvious: the fragile human against a bureaucratic mechanized system that has lost sight of something fundamental about humanity. There is a tenderness and fragility to our hero who must surmount all odds to succeed. 

Central to Hardiman's fraught story is navigating a health insurance system that is guaranteed to kill you long before it cures you.  In their case, the story will end satisfactorily, but that does not stop one from being enraged by the level of difficulty in accessing what is supposedly the best health care system in the world. There are helpers along the way including a named surgeon (who was scheduled to save my husband's life but the sands in his hour glass ran out too soon) We can all perhaps relate to a medical industrial complex that has too many hoops to jump to save human lives.

This is a complex and moving piece, as well as a masterful use of multimedia technology.  It is a short run, so don’t delay to see it. 

The Complex Whole So Formed is playing Thursdays through Saturdays and Tuesday August 24, 2026 through August 29th at the Neo-Futurist Theater at 5153 N Ashland Avenue in Chicago. For tickets and information go to  https://neofuturists.org/events/the-complex-whole-so-formed/

Photo by Justin Lynk

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