Created and Performed by Christina Gelsone
Co-created and Directed by Matthew Ferraro
Baryshnikov Arts Center
The Jerome Robbins Theater, 450 West 37th Street, NYC, 10018
October 22nd - 24th
Every once in a while, in a city filled with commercial art, cheap laughs and regurgitated headline recreations, there is a moment of quiet brilliance. This month, you will find it by walking west – not so far that you’ve found the new west side home of the glitz and wealth, but nestled between cavernous construction sites silenced by the night. It is worth the walk.
Christina Gelsone reminds us of the beauty created when pain is processed through art. She is a wordless clown and mask performer that together with her late husband and clown partner Seth Bloom, toured the world with their acclaimed shows Air Play, Waterbombs!, and Madame & Monsieur. They headlined the Big Apple Circus and international events such as the Adelaide Festival, the Cervantino Festival, and the Acrobatic Art Festival in Wuhan, where they received the Yellow Crane Prize. She has worked extensively in post-conflict zones including Kosovo, Albania, Serbia, Egypt, and returned many times to Afghanistan where she and Bloom met. But Bloom is gone, and she has been left to continue on without him.
Over 55 minutes, we are transported into Gelsone’s grief and loss. Wallowing in despair, finding beauty in every day objects left behind, we are reminded of ourselves in our own dark days where nothing and no one could break the spell upon us. But that is where she lets the ridiculous seep in, and we laugh. We aren’t laughing at the situation, we are laughing at the humanity of it all. The weight can be crushing. We are pushed to our limits. We are at the end of our rope. And sometimes, an unexpected act of kindness from a stranger can keep us from falling to pieces.
Gelsone and Ferraro have done more than create something we can all relate to – they have turned straw into gold. They have turned sorrow into joy. When the show ends, you will still be struck by the whimsy of bubbles released into the air only to still be finding their way to ground as you exit. Somethings are beyond our control – and isn’t there beauty in that?
Review by Nicole Jesson.
Published by Theatre Beyond Broadway on October 25, 2026. All rights reserved.
