This writing was published in Brooklyn Rail’s November 2022 Issue as part of “VESSEL: Seeing Double,” parallel reviews by Noa Weiss and myself of David Thomson’s new work, VESSEL, which premiered at The Chocolate Factory in New York in October 2022. Read an excerpt below, and read the full interview on Brooklyn Rail’s website.
One performer, shrouded in a blanket, approaches the walls often, a sliver of their face exposed, though nearly impossible to make out. They emit soft mouthy clicking sounds, like the echolocation of a bat. I can only hear them when their body is less than a foot away from mine, which gives me a glimpse of clarity and closeness, even while muffled visually by the veil between us. Opacity, Thomson shows us, does not preclude intimacy.
NORA RAINE THOMPSON 