You’d expect a one-man show by a man like Bill Bowers, with a long and successful career as a mime, to be a whimsical, fantastical adventure, which induces smiles from the second it starts to the second it ends.
What you get instead is an emotionally charged one-man show that is more of a coming of age tale about a man who can finally be himself in society.
However, after listening to him talk for 75 minutes, you get the idea that he was always himself. It was society that needed to catch up to him instead.
While you’ll laugh at times, in the end, “Beyond Words†is Bowers’ way of telling the world that he can now get married, join the armed forces [if he wanted] without hiding anything and have the family he always wanted. His life has been a journey; an incredibly entertaining one filled with curveballs. Stereotypes are easily broken in his world, but at times, secrets are still prevalent. That, in the end, is Bowers’ gift to the audience. Expect the unexpected in this performance and in your life. You’ll get it.
Listening to Bowers chat is the best part of the show. He’s a charmer. With a big smile and a warm heart, he discusses his childhood and his travels all over the country. In between these chats, he performs skits in mime. While these are moderately interesting, they tend to drag. The one scene that has him at a carnival is confusing to follow, while the one involving the teen that was beaten and hung was difficult to process. It’s understandable that it is in the performance, due to Bowers’ feelings about the need for acceptance and tolerance in the LGBT community, but considering how exceptionally positive he is over the course of the show, he didn’t need this skit to further prove his point.
After the second or third skit, it’s easy to get impatient. You want to listen to him tell the next part of his story. The reality of his life is ultimately so much more interesting than the mime. It’s impossible to say that he isn’t talented in this area, as his facial expressions alone make them worthwhile, but overall, there’s something lacking in them. The fact that they often don’t logically connect to his monologues doesn’t help the experience either.
A brilliant ending to the show saves things though. It ties all of his experiences together and reinforces his main idea: love life and it’ll love you back. The conclusion is so strong that it makes it worthwhile to keep an open mind after a few segments snag a bit.
Had this been just a one-man show with Bowers’ discussing his life, it could have been one of the best Off-Off Broadway productions this fall. The weaker mime elements withstanding, the show is still an enjoyable one, but a bit too abstract at times to fully deliver Bowers’ true message.
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