Fringe, Reviewed: Human Fruit Bowl

[ theater ]

Human Fruit Bowl, by Andrea Kuchlewska and Harmony Stempel

Attended: Sun., Sept. 8, 8 p.m., at Voyeur Nightclub; closes Sun. Sept. 21

Ever wonder what goes through the mind of a live nude model while she poses?

WE THINK: 

Harmony Stempel’s monologuing as a nude model drives in the metaphor pretty quickly: She’s nude for us, and she’s nude for us. And throughout Human Fruit Bowl, she’s fretting over the ins and outs of her gig posing for New York City art students.

Early on, Stempel educates us on the process. Models, on a standard day, pose for 20 minutes, break for five, pose for 20, repeat. This sets the tone for the performance, as she poses, breaks, poses, all throughout bouncing frenetically between her anxieties and a fixation on the strange art history of the relationships artists forge with their models.

Stempel gravitates primarily on Post-Impressionist painter (and bathtub afficiando) Pierre Bonnard and his model/mistress Renée Monchaty, who famously died in a bathtub after posing for hundred’s of Bonnard’s bathtub portraits. She draws parallels for us, her performance and nude figure generating equal measures of gravitational pull, when a student painter starts taking an interest in her as she poses in a prop bathtub of her own.

What’s missing from Human Fruit Bowl, although this may be intentional, is a sense of purpose. If narrative direction is what an audience is looking for, they may be left for wanting here. Stempel gives an inspired performance, as well as great lesson in art history, and once her character’s conclusion is drawn, it’s enough. It’s a show that trusts an audience and doesn’t need to hold our hands for us to appreciate it.