Review: Collide Theatrical Dance brings athletic skills and artistic touch to ‘Bonnie and Clyde’

The story of American bandits Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow proved a sensation when they rampaged across the United States between 1932 and 1934, and their story has continued to inspire the American imagination in the years since.

Collide Theatrical Dance Company’s new production uses the narrative to comment on our current era’s unhealthy obsession with celebrities and when wannabe influencers post crimes on social media sites for viral infamy.

“Bonnie and Clyde” opened Friday and runs through Nov. 3 at Collide’s new residency, the Luminary Arts Center in Minneapolis. The show offers empathy for the couple — particularly Parker — and suggests that public craving for such scandalous stories accounts for part of the blame for their reckless actions.

Artistic director Regina Peluso wrote and directed the production and choreographed most of the dance pieces. She centers the narrative around Parker, danced by guest artist Samantha Watson, with voice-over narration by Bella West (who also dances in the ensemble).

Dressed in the early scenes in a red dress and donning a head full of fiery red hair, Parker’s appearance recalls another Depression-era hero, Little Orphan Annie. The set, designed by Erik Paulson, is constructed with ramshackle boards as a reminder of the time period’s massive poverty, while Leslie Ritenour’s projection design plasters the back wall with newspaper headlines, underlining the frenzy that Parker and Barrow’s crimes caused in the newspapers of the day.

Peluso’s script sets the scene by showing Parker’s days before meeting Barrow. After an abusive marriage to Roy Thornton, Parker ends up living with her religious mother and dreaming of becoming a movie star while waiting tables at a diner and wanting to get out of her small-town life.

That’s when she meets Barrow at a local dance, and the cast performs a rollicking line-dance number to Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em,” choreographed by Heather Brockman. Upon meeting, Parker and Barrow (played by Jarod Boltjes) have instant chemistry. The sparks start flying in a dance set to “You Make My Dreams” by Hall & Oates and choreographed by Peluso. The couple fall in love, with Watson playing up Parker’s sass and Boltjes showing off his moves.

Watson shines in the role of Parker, both as a dancer and in portraying the emotional arc of the troubled soul. She and Boltjes exude charisma in their scenes together. Boltjes also choreographed one of his solo pieces, highlighting his athletic skills as a dancer with an artistic touch.

In the supporting roles, Megan Carver as Blanche Barrow and Patrick Jeffrey as Buck Barrow are a wonder to watch. Carver often appears weightless as she’s thrown in the air in all sorts of different poses by Jeffrey. Henry Steele Dillon, who makes his debut at Collide, plays Frank Hamer, the Texas ranger who pursues the Barrow gang, with swagger.

The second act of the production gets to the darker part of the story, when Bonnie and Clyde’s crime spree turns deadly and the gang in some ways lose control of its narrative. Collide’s depiction of violence uses a stylized approach. Rather than prop guns, the dancers make their hands flat with their thumb sticking out to indicate their weapons. And the brawls with police are acrobatic and theatrical, rather than gruesome.

This approach nods to the glean of nostalgia that Bonnie and Clyde’s story holds in the American consciousness. The production frames the couple’s plight as a symbol of the harm that celebrity culture caused back in the 1930s and continues today.

When: 7 p.m. Thu., 7:30 p.m. Fri. & Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. Through Nov. 3.

Where: Luminary Art Center, 700 N. 1st St., Mpls.

Tickets: $35-$48. luminaryartscenter.com, 651-395-7903.