What I liked
Absolutely everything.
What I didn't like
More support, more shows, a tour. It needs to go everywhere.
My overall impression
There are Fringe shows. Then, once in a great while, there’s something as powerful, as moving, as spectacular, as captivating, as brilliant, as this. Writer and actor Mayuri Bhandari doesn’t just perform. She transcends. By using everything at her disposal – her body, her voice, her authority, music, dance, visuals, props – Bhandari dazzles the audience, daring to break the mold of time and space itself. Her characterization of divine gods and valley girls alike, accompanied by perfectly curated live and digital soundscapes, hypnotizes the viewer to the point that our hearts ache with each twist, our smiles erupt at every catharsis, and our eyes water with every revelation. As a practitioner of yoga myself, my curiosity was drawn by the premise of her title: The Anti “Yogi”. Needless to say, this show, in itself, is yoga. Instead of individual movement or breath, Bhandari uses her gift of performance to call forth the collective and shatter what separates us in the audience. No matter the cultural, spiritual, or physical differences, Bhandari binds us through her questioning of what we known today as “yoga” and what yoga truly is. She makes us ask what it means to try to genuinely embody truth in a world that has gone incredibly wayward. And to my astonishment, she wraps it up in a way that I can say, as a Native American, brought me to tears. This show is necessary for more to see. I hope it finds support, finds its legs, and finds a tour to go far-and-wide. It is a piece of art that I will be thinking about, and carry forward, forever. For now, I am an Anti-Yogi too.
