Welcome to Paradise!

Scene from The Grand Paradise,
the new production from award-winning Third Rail Projects
(photo: Darial Sneed)

Elizabeth Carena plays The Siren
in The Grand Paradise.
(photo: Joshua Reaver)

The Grand Paradise--the sexy new confection from Third Rail Projects of Bessie-winning Then She Fell fame--takes place in a cleverly simulated tropical resort. For two hours, "vacationers" get to drift from room to room watching and engaging with a cast of saucy characters in search of the Fountain of Youth.

Immersive physical theater in quirky, lavishly re-designed locations has become TRP's specialty, and the directorial team of Zach Morris, Tom Pearson and Jennine Willett ground it all in dance. Performers clamber all over high and dicey surfaces like mountain goats and handle one another's bodies with gleeful audacity. Dreamy, often ecstatic movement sequences, performed in tight quarters, vie with more intimate, semi-private interludes between resort guests and characters for offering the most delight.

Unlike another critic, I refuse to divulge every last detail of this paradisiacal experience. You should come to The Grand Paradise fairly fresh. A little shyness or bemusement is okay, too. You'll be well taken care of, sweetly so.

Really, it's all for you--the piped-in '70s-style lounge music, the mystery beverages (which can be declined), the self-help advice about setting sail for your "geography of desire." At the core of all the breathless phenomena and bustle is a genuine, and quite gentle, invitation to free your mind--or your ass, as Funkadelic would have it, which will serve up the same result. Whether you find the means of delivery provocative and motivational or hokey depends upon you.

Like Then She Fell (still running), The Grand Paradise might end up running and running and running some more, but the stated end date is March 31. Get all information, schedule and tickets here.

The Grand Paradise
383 Troutman Street (near Jefferson Street station), Brooklyn
(map/directions)