Review: She’s the Dancing Body, He’s the Restless Mind

There is plenty of text in “Many Happy Returns,” but dance, the language of the body — presented here as intentional and slyly forthright — is just as critical as the words. The main character, who never speaks but does, in one moment, sing a Billy Joel song in flat a cappella, is Monica Bill Barnes. But is it really her?

In this partially improvised work at Playwrights Horizons by the artistic team of Barnes and Robbie Saenz de Viteri, Barnes, the dancer and choreographer, isn’t just playing herself. Her character is a hybrid of its creators.

Barnes plays the woman’s body — with its silent-movie allure as it navigates space in sinewy and dewy ways — and Saenz de Viteri, speaking throughout, is her mind. Through movement and text, the character’s insecurities and joy spill out for all to feel and see. “She’s a woman who carries herself with total clarity, a clarity she might not even always exactly feel,” Saenz de Viteri says. That seems right.

Bach, Blondie and Judy Garland are part of the lively soundtrack that helps usher in the New Year. Flowers are handed out, a prewritten toast is made by an audience member. We cheer her on. “Many Happy Returns” winds along many paths until it arrives, joyfully, at its sweeping final dance to “(Nothing but) Flowers” by Talking Heads. It seems loose — with the jovial air of a live podcast — yet its freedom clearly comes from its unyielding structure and detail.

At its essence, “Many Happy Returns” is an experiment in the art of camaraderie and connection, of strangers finding community in a broken world. “I should also say I will play someone else, there’s going to be a moment when I play one of you actually and then there will be a moment when one of you has to play one of us,” Saenz de Viteri says. “So we’re all in this together.”

This production — admission is free — takes place in a space dressed up as if for a dance in a school gymnasium. At the seemingly casual start, Barnes arranges pitchers and vases of flowers; Saenz di Viteri sits behind a small table and computer and sets the scene: “There’s some dread in the air this year for sure,” he says. “Maybe a little bit of joy? I don’t know.”