Swimming to Spalding
written and performed by
Lian Amaris
directed by
Richard Schechner
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Swimming to Spalding is a monologue piece concerning performance artist Lian Amaris’s adventures in finding the perfect moment, a reference to the late monologist Spalding Gray’s perfect moment in his piece Swimming to Cambodia. Ms. Amaris discovered Gray's Cambodiain college as preparatory work for a project and became enamored of it. The interest Ms. Amaris has with Spalding Gray’s adventures triggers her own adventure as she follows in his footsteps in Thailand.
Not just his metaphorical footsteps, but often painfully literal reenactments of his actions – such as buying a Thai prostitute for the night or attempting to smoke a Thai Stick even thought she admits she doesn’t really like marijuana and just pretends to puff. For rabid fans of Spalding Gray, this may sound like a beguiling premise or a great vacation idea. But it is not a beguiling premise for a theater piece.
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The direction by Richard Schechner is competent, and Ms. Amaris is a charismatic performer, however they have chosen a stilted pace that may mimic Spalding Gray’s, but does not flow naturally within the framework of their own creation. The show is uneven, meandering and, off-puttingly, more than mildly derisive of men.
Ms. Amaris highlights her journey with discussions about prostitutes (male and female), lady-boy shows and musings of her tuk-tuk trips. She chooses an odd story about two Australian soldiers on leave, one extremely nice to her and the other perhaps a closest homosexual, as a jumping off point to trash men in general, and two of her liaisons in particular.
She discusses disturbing relationships with two other much more violent and unpredictable men in order to make the point that men are capable of great and horrible things. It isn’t much of a revelation. Later, she references three of these men to equate men in general with an earth-engulfing evil – apparently overlooking the soldier who was nice to her, because he wasn’t an asshole.
Ms. Amaris has a lyrical and beautiful way with words, but after unraveling the texture and imagery, there is very little meaning within. Early in the show she admits she has a near-constant running commentary within her own head. In Swimming to Spalding she shares the commentary with us but without the context or underlying emotion.
Ms. Amaris does ultimately find her perfect moment and tries to share it with the audience, but the moment itself clashes so completely with the tone of the rest of the piece that the audience is left to wonder why we have been on this journey.
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New York reviews
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Three Sisters, Classic Stage Company
The Piano Lesson, Yale Repertory Theatre
The Momentum, Laurie Beechman Theatre
The Walk Across America for Mother Earth, La MaMa E.T.C.
John Gabriel Borkman, BAM Harvey Theater
Blood From a Stone, Acorn Theatre
Malfi, Inc., Theatre 54
Pieces, 59E59 Theaters
A Delicate Balance, Yale Repertory Theatre
The Memorandum, Beckett Theatre
The Scottsboro Boys, Lyceum Theatre
Driving Miss Daisy, Golden Theatre
Futura, TBG Theatre
La Bete, The Music Box Theatre
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre
A Life in the Theatre, Schoenfeld Theatre
In Transit, 59E59 Theaters
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