The Nature Play Center at Indian Boundary Park is transformed at night: in the half light the three tiny houses, the sand garden and low bridge, the ring of short wooden rails appear ominous, a tableau of totemic objects grown large. Once a small zoo, the play lot feels unsettlingly liable to transform itself without warning—and you with it.
Amid the clutter of themes, abjection remains the one indispensable concept, and we’re confronted with it throughout, as when Chih-Hsien Lin, facedown on her belly, pulls her body up into a miserable hunch, tormented by the accordion’s grueling polka, her arms and legs and forehead still pressed to the ground. But in other moments of equal tension, there’s a disconnect—the abject bodies are negated by facial expressions so vacant they’re practically goofy, and at such close range an unfocused gaze is distracting, even distancing. Rather than terrified victims, the dancers resemble blank-faced babies staring up out of a crib, and a dance that aims to alarm compels barely a ripple of fear.
Through 12/7: Wed-Sun 8 PM (except Wed 11/26-Fri 11/28) Indian Boundary Park 2500 W. Luntkhecari.org $7-$70
