John Jasperse: «Prone»

John Jasperse‘s new performance work contains dancing, or, rather, dancelike behavior, but the focus is the audience, 48 tops at each performance, who serve as the major set element, a living floor. “Prone” is an interactive thing. You should prepare to lie down on your back on one of 24 transparent air mattresses for half of the 70-minute running time. 
The subject of “Prone,” as for many of Jasperse’s works, is perception, and the production is complexly arranged to make one look harder (strategic lights, overhead mirrors) and listen more keenly.

It’s an honorable, even a fascinating idea; the lighting, which runs through a panoply of subtle effects, is the best part of the show. The only problem is that what’s being illuminated isn’t very interesting, and what’s being heard would prompt the inner naïf to run out the door if the outer sophisticate weren’t in control.
The first, “daytime” half features the performers Luciana Achugar, Levi Gonzalez, and Eleanor Hullihan tossing huge inflated plastic bags over the people on the air mattresses, a series of slack gymnastic trios performed with feet or groins inches away from the faces of those on the mattresses, a repetitive “dance” ...