I have no concrete thoughts here; only a confused jumble of mixed emotions, some complimentary and others highly critical.This wasn’t going to be an easy show to review and I knew that from the beginning. It seems as though everyone and their dog has got an opinion on The Human Body Project, currently gracing Victoria Fringe with its third consecutive appearance – sometimes whether they’ve seen the show or not. There’s precious little middle ground here, with some praising it for its daring, while others have criticized it for not actually being a theatre piece. Needless to say, this made going into it for the first time with a completely objective mind difficult. Now, finally having seen it for myself, I can only say that I appreciated aspects of it but also thought it was deeply flawed.
Conceived by naked western dissident and teacher Tasha Diamant, the piece, as you may have heard, is simply the artist sitting bare-bones in front of a crowd. Saying very little, she waits for the audience, daring them to respond, start a discussion and get the ball rolling. As she opens up, she talks about her mission to provoke greater societal vulnerability and thus begin to combat some of the greater problems of society from the ground up. While I appreciate the intent (based on my own fascination with the human form), and I love how passionate she is for her “work,” part of me couldn’t help but wonder if all we had experienced was grumbling at what was wrong (so very wrong) about the world while looking at a naked woman.
Mrs. Diamant is not an uninteresting person, and given the few anecdotes she shared about her life and work has had her share of colorful experiences. I’d almost recommend a radical re-working of the show dramatically, one where she could engage more with her audience and get them involved in participation and discussion. She needs to draw them out more than she’s doing at the moment, because her overall message does give pause for thought. The best way to get your message across is to entertain (though not soullessly), and Diamant’s personal stories about pain and exploring discomfort were certainly involving. I would have liked to hear more of those. Right now this is a lecture prompted by the audience and not the lecturer, and it might work better the other way around.
In the end, the best I can finish on is the old cop-out that this show isn’t for everyone. Having said that, I can’t deny that she shared a positive connection with more than a few members of my audience, and of all the things I can say about this piece, I’m not sorry that I finally saw it.
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