Review: Daniel Ezralow's PEARL Is Visually Sumptuous

Director/choreographer Daniel Ezralow's sumptuously realized PEARL, inspired by the life of Pulitzer Prize winning author Pearl S. Buck, is a theatre/dance piece with a heavy emphasis on theatre.

Working with the design team of Michael Cotton (production), Oana Botez (costumes) and Christopher Akerlind (lights), Ezralow uses his 34 dancers to create striking visuals - some abstract, some realistic - that tell a story combining Chinese traditions and American glitz.

It helps to read the program notes first to understand the specifics of the story and the meaning of the symbolism. Buck's tale is told in a manner that parallels the Chinese poem, "Spring, River, Flower, Moon, Night," with symbols for the title elegantly displayed on the show curtain.

Special guest dancer Margie Gillis plays the author as an adult, looking back at her upbringing in China as the daughter of missionaries. The farmers and laborers she encounters at the banks of the Yangtze River inspire characters she will write about in later years, particularly in her classic "The Good Earth."

Jun Miyake's score, presented in a recording, has a generic feel to it, whether expressing somber Chinese tones or, in the second act, pushing frivolous giddiness for the lavish 1937 premiere of the film adaptation of "The Good Earth."

Artistic frustration and romantic woes dominate the second half, with Ezralow's staging becoming more and more abstract. The excitement of creativity is expressed through a fun scene that has the author playing her typewriter keys like a musical instrument. Her influence in bringing Chinese culture into American mainstream is shown in a dance where she is the gravitational pull in an orbit of bodies.

The much-publicized design feature of having a curving river surrounding the stage is the only visual disappointment, at least from row L of the orchestra section where it isn't clearly visible if eye level is on the same plane as water level. A hidden symbol, indeed.

Photos: Jim Cox

Click here to follow Michael Dale on Twitter.

To post a comment, you must register and login.