Read our review of ||: Girls :||: Chance :||: Music :||<\/em> off Broadway, Eisa Davis’s new play with music running at Vineyard Theatre through June 21.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The notes of coming of age are complex for four students at an all-girls summer music academy in earthquake-prone Berkeley, California. Directed with no frills by Pam MacKinnon at Vineyard Theatre<\/a>, Eisa Davis\u2019s play ||: Girls :||: Chance :||: Music :||<\/em><\/a> is a stark, messy portrait of teen musicians figuring out their harmonies.<\/p>\n The students\u2019 musical inclinations are attuned to their approaches to life. At the heart of the story is the soprano Fax (Hillary Fisher, with a satin, operatic voice) who likes her predetermined \u201croadmap\u201d of musical structure and frets over college applications. She\u2019ll eventually form a connection with the baggy-clothed drummer Margot (Naomi Latta, contemplative and enigmatic), who values going with her gut, and the chicly-dressed pianist Rile (Yeena Sung, volatile), outgoing but prone to fits. The fourth character, multi-instrumentalist Clementine (an upbeat Gianna DiGregorio Rivera), offers intermittent conversation and often hangs around as a background musical presence; she’s content with practicing and doesn\u2019t sweat theory like the others.<\/p>\n Through Fan Zhang\u2019s sound design, which captures the aural atmosphere of rehearsal spaces and hallways, the first half\u2019s music telegraphs the girls’ developing relationships and anxieties. Their first vocal warm-ups (randomly determined by audience volunteers pre-show) descend into cacophony. Their sonic gifts are indisputable, but their hearts seem divested. By the second warm-up, Fax glances back awkwardly as her classmates let loose and freestyle but can\u2019t join the revelry. These first 10 minutes tease the question: How will these girls synchronize?<\/p>\n Margot \u2014 who forms an early bond with Fax when the latter talks Margot down from a potentially fatal ledge \u2014 seems to have the match to light Fax\u2019s fire. Banging improvised drum thrums on her seat, she later coaxes Fax into singing along and forging a sonic language between them.<\/p>\n This makes the climb to the show’s climatic three-person concert piece, \u201cNever Been,\u201d all the more breathtaking. It wholeheartedly weaves seemingly arrhythmic chaos into artistry, charged with Margot\u2019s thunderous drum solo, Rile\u2019s jazzy piano riffs, and Fax\u2019s apprehensive vocals gradually strengthening. The adrenaline-filled performance is capped off with an a cappella section as if the girls had been transported to a dimension where they could read each other\u2019s minds.<\/p>\n As if reality has to pull the rug from underneath them, their 10-minute euphoria of musical liberation does not signify sustaining synchronization for their friendship. We feel, in Latta\u2019s deflated expressions, that Margot feels disappointed she may have misread her bond with Fax as a courtship (it\u2019s complicated for Fax), devolving into lash-outs and meltdowns. This is where the play\u2019s second half stumbles amid a crowded landscape of crises both interpersonal (a sapphic love triangle, binge eating, a family twist of sorts) and external (earthquakes). The play\u2019s grander swings land stuffy rather than smooth. While its ambition is commendable, the narrative of ||: Girls :||: Chance :||: Music :||<\/em> is a tricky composition to a fault.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Young Fax has a chance to discover herself at an all-girl\u2019s summer music academy vulnerable to the San Andreas Fault. When she meets fellow student Margot, a suicidal professor\u2019s kid with a cryptic backstory, their burgeoning connection opens her up to the freedom of musical freestyling. While befriending their classmate Rile and experimenting with music, interpersonal discord begins to test their harmonious friendship.<\/p>\n The title references chance music, an experimental style that leaves parts \u201cup to chance,\u201d or improvisation, at the performer\u2019s discretion.<\/p>\n Before its Off-Broadway premiere, ||: Girls :||: Chance :||: Music :||<\/em> debuted at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.<\/p>\n ||: Girls :||: Chance :||: Music :||<\/em> earns high marks for its economical production design. With precision, Nina Ball\u2019s sets turn Vineyard Theatre into wood-paneled rehearsal rooms and hallways, with instruments slotted into tight spaces and Russell H. Champa\u2019s lighting signaling an earthquake alarm in the opening.<\/p>\n Mel Ng\u2019s costumes are similarly rich in detail, like the Labubus attached to Rile\u2019s backpack. The clothing and accessories reflect how each girl scrutinizes \u2014 or neglects, in the case of Margot\u2019s baggy sweaters that suggest her limited resources \u2014 their wardrobe every morning, and Ng eventually tailors their style to each of their chosen adulthood paths.<\/p>\n Before the show starts, a whiteboard with sticker-marked piano keys is brought to the piano. Twelve audience volunteers are asked to place a sticker on notes of their choosing, creating a tone-row melody performed within the play. It\u2019s vital to know of this participatory element to appreciate how the cast turns unwieldy “chance music” into sonic cohesion.<\/p>\n Users on online forums like the Mezzanine app and Reddit have shared mixed responses to the play, as did critics reviewing the San Francisco run.<\/p>\n||: Girls :||: Chance :||: Music :||<\/em> summary<\/h2>\n
What to expect at ||: Girls :||: Chance :||: Music :||<\/em><\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nWhat audiences are saying about ||: Girls :||: Chance :||: Music :||<\/em><\/h2>\n
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Who should see ||: Girls :||: Chance :||: Music :||<\/em><\/h2>\n
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Learn more about ||: Girls :||: Chance :||: Music :||<\/em> off Broadway<\/h2>\n