If you ever wondered what happened to your ancient Mac monitor, you may find it onstage at ODC Theater this week, where it may be the center of attention in the world premiere of Katharine Hawthorne’s “Mainframe,” a sometimes irreverent, occasionally sobering 65-minute opus on the computer age and its influence on human kind.
“Mainframe” has been beautifully staged with dazzling lighting by David Robertson, and it features agreeable performances by the five barefoot dancers.
Hawthorne has dealt with technology in two earlier works and her academic credits in physics and dance serve her well.
Exhibiting a good sense of structure, Hawthorne returns near the end to Champi who is driven into a frenzy when Katherine Disenhof disembowels a Mac wire by filament, and the moment delivers both pathos and humor The piece should have ended there; the following duet for Megan Wright and Suzette Sagisi, although cleverly wrought, seems like something of an anticlimax.
The distinctive opening motto of the Piano Sonata No. 1 prompts a rapid company excursion, but Hawthorne’s musicality seems unformed at this point.
Dancers thrust their upper bodies, roll on the floor, slice their arms through the air, drop on one knee in the Martha Graham manner.
[...] it needs to be scrutinized more profoundly than the lengthy episode with Siri, during which the performers question the computerized voice (a friend notes that Siri and Macs come from different computer generations).
