Cabaret adaptation looks for utopia

This week's show at the Yale Cabaret, Dancing at the Edge of the World, combines various theatrical forms to paint a resounding picture of the folly of human progress—an ambitious and ultimately well-handled theme.

The show, adapted from Ursula K. Le Guin's novel by the same name and performed by a cast of six actresses, consists of three separate tales. The first tells the story of six women, still in the throes of youthful idealism, who set off on a road trip West in search of an undefined "utopia." They ultimately realize that in order to truly gain paradise, they must not venture forward but should instead "go backward, turn, and return." The second is of an old woman who is tormented by "messages;" she can, somehow, read the hidden messages in the patterns of physical objects and is disturbed to realize that her machine-made tablecloth speaks to her in nonsense. The third story follows six female explorers who have gone on an expedition to Anarctica in order to "go farther, see farther," but return home empty-handed and unenlightened. The show combines monologue, narrative, dance, and disjointed conversation in its presentation.

Though each part varies widely in both structure and content, the stories come together on one haunting point: man's yearning for freedom, exploration, and knowledge, beginning in the Garden of Eden and heightened in the modern age, is both vain and destructive.

The play's acting is often self-indulgent and the philosophical nature of the script is somewhat airy and pretentious. The actresses often seem to be just wandering around the stage with a far-away look in their eyes, attempting to express in an amorphous way some sort of universal philosophical truth. In the end, though, the show's weighty content and the obvious enthusiasm of the cast prevails. Dancing at the Edge of the Wind proves to be a thoughtful and enjoyable piece.

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