Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
Every so often a new technology crunches its way into the arts. Kat Mustatea, the “transmedia playwright and artist” behind The Mutables, created a system that generates sound – “embodied speech” – from body movements. The show employs this “BodyMouth” in a dance-theater-opera performance that references mythological female forest creatures from Balkan folklore in a commentary on the othering and suppression of women and the female voice.
The folklore aspect wouldn’t be very evident if you weren’t aware of it ahead of time. But it does feed the feeling of the show, of being lost and unable to communicate one’s most urgent meaning.
The BodyMouth
Activated by dancers in striking futuristic costumes, the BodyMouth emits not words but isolated phonemes. The dancers bend, accent, and otherwise manipulate these sounds with their movements, peppering the action with unformed suggestions of thought and emotion. A libretto sung by mezzo-soprano Rocky Duval only somewhat clarifies the meaning. “You will begin to tell a story…They cannot help listening because they are so lonely.” But who are they? Are they us?
Portraying the central and really the only character, it’s dancer Marie Lloyd Paspe, through her own urgent, agonized choreography and interactions with the other dancers, who defines a recognizable if mysterious landscape of interiority. Are we in her dream? A fugue state? Is she in real physical danger? In any case her opening dance graphically establishes a sense of isolation. We are told that the beings represented by the other dancers really “have no discernible gender,” though folklore always portrays them as women. What does that discrepancy tell us?
The show doesn’t offer answers. Intermittently, it grabs and hold on, but the BodyMouth sequences progress through periods of sameness that lose focus. The central dancer is frustrated, calling out again and again, “No matter what I say it doesn’t work!” I grew frustrated too.
For the final segments, the sound grows harsh and industrial, and after a second solo dance the BodyMouth performers return, now in black. I felt relief that something was again happening. At 45 minutes the show is as long as it needs to be – the 60- or 90-minute time frames mentioned in the advance publicity would have been too much.
Appreciated as a dance performance more than anything else, The Mutables makes a mark. The costumes, sound, technology, and above all the choreography make it an interesting experiment, not always gripping but well worth checking out if it makes a return appearance or travels to your neck of the woods (Balkan or otherwise). Just don’t come expecting a coherent story or meaning.
The world premiere of The Mutables ran at HERE Arts Center in NYC, Oct 8–11, 2025.
