‘Color Theories’ by Julio Torres at Performance Space NYC

Warning: this is an untraditional review for an untraditional show.

Almost immediately, when I got back from my NYC trip in May, a new reason popped up for me to go back sooner than expected. Julio Torres (‘Problemista’, ‘Fantasmas’, and the home of Tati, ‘Los Espookys’) was putting on a show Off Broadway in September. Welp, I guess my next NYC dates were picked for me, y’all.

I mean, I knew I would be going back at some point… better sooner rather than later, you know? (so I can go back a third time later, maybe???)

First, I will tell you why I love Julio, and then I will tell you about the show.

Why I Love Julio Torres

I love Julio Torres because of his tangents. I mean, yeah, there are other reasons too, but the tangents are what made my brain feel like it was at home for real. Not just, “Oh, I can see why this creator did this thing or that thing. It makes sense.” Watching my first Julio Torres project was more like, “This is how my brain feels on the inside, and I am so glad someone has put it on screen.”

The first time I saw Julio was the place where I saw most of my recent talent obsessions (including Cole Escola, who is responsible for my first trip to NYC to see Oh, Mary!), Search Party. This show (I know I have said this one million times) is the best work in escalation that I’ve ever seen. If you ever want to watch it, let me know, and I’ll watch along with you. I will never get tired of this show.

Julio’s part in Search Party was tiny, but memorable. Then he popped up in another show that fostered even of my recent talent crushes (main one being Josh Segarra, because Lance was such a pleasant surprise as a character), The Other Two (another show I will watch along with you. Literally, this is one of the most tightly written comedies I’ve ever watched… and I watch a lot of television, y’all).

Then he popped up in a movie I loved (Together, Together). Then I recognized him in three episodes during one of my many rewatches of Aidy Bryant’s brilliant show, Shrill (talk about feeling SEEEEEEEEN).

Then, the time for Independent Spirit Awards voting came around last year, and both Problemista and Fantasmas were nominated. Being a completionist (read: OCD) who feels like a fraud if she doesn’t give every single thing nominated a chance before voting, she watched ‘em both… along with all the nominees.

Then, she cried a little bit because she saw the way her brain works in a very tangible way onscreen. Nathan Fielder got close, but nothing nailed the tangents and the natural curiosity like Julio Torres does.

I think it is his curiosity that gets me the most hype. And the surreal elements, like the way he depicts the immigration process in Problemista as a challenging maze-like labyrinth, make the process feel more accessible (and infinitely frustrating) in a creative way. Goddamn, that sentence is bad, and I apologize.

But at the heart of it all is humor, surrealism, and above all, humor. Yes, I voted for this movie when voting time came around, and I was stupidly happy to do it.

Same for Fantasmas. I’ve watched this show in totality a few times now. I created a lollipop flavor because of it.

It’s clear (because Clear is Julio’s favorite color), and the name of the flavor is Empty Gatorade Bottle, and it tastes like if you filled a Citrus Cooler Gatorade bottle with water and then drank it. I gotta work a little better on the crystal clear color… the sugar cooking gives it a little bit of color, and I’d rather it didn’t.

Okay, so we’ve established I love Julio, yes? If you want to know my feelings on Los Espookys (and especially Tati), just read my recent TV stuff.

I could literally write a 10,000-word essay with citations and examples about my love for Julio Torres (even though it is a very recent love), but no one wants to read that, right? And, c’mon, y’all… at the 10k word level, I should be getting PAID.

So, instead, I’ll tell you about our show adventure. (but I will not spoil the show, because I am hoping it will get taped and will be on HBO at some point, and I will give you all a homework assignment to watch it. While you’re waiting, go watch My Favorite Shapes, okay? okay).

Ketchup & Mustard

So, when Color Theories by Julio Torres was announced, I knew I’d be going back to NYC in September. I stalked the ticket page for a few weeks before making my purchase. We ended up in the front row, just left of center.

If you know anything about me (and Aubrey), you know that we have incredible fashion sense and like to make a (neurodivergently friendly) scene. So, that’s what we planned… and it kept getting better (remember how much I love escalation?!)

Right after I bought our tickets, I messaged Aubrey, “Since this show is about color, I feel like we should, like, colorwash ourselves.” She was on board immediately.

I didn’t know what color I wanted to embody, so Mickey and I hit up some local resale shops and fashion stores. I found a gorgeous black dress (with pockets!) that I’ll be wearing to Hadestown tonight at one local shop I love and an orange crop top that reads “Michigan Lady Gators” in Florida Gators font at another. But no dress in a color I was in love with.

In a last-minute act of desperation, we went to my secret weapon of a store (I will not tell you what it is because then it wouldn’t be a secret. I will say that the store is definitely Pink, but encased in a Navy Blue box.)

I found a stunning Orange dress, but it was waaaaaay too big for me. I bought it anyway, because Aubrey Hess is an incredible costume designer and tailor, so I knew we could do something fun to transform it. I mean, it was ten bucks. I tried on a couple of things that were fine, but none gave that happy “this is it!” feeling. I grabbed a kind of body-con yellow dress with short floral sleeves and added it to the next pile of try-ons as a last try, not expecting to like it at all on my body.

See? I’m a 48-year-old woman and, you know, I’ve been trained my entire life to hate myself and my body and my brain, so imagine my surprise when I put this dress on and immediately beamed. It felt good, it felt comfortable, and it felt happy. All things I enjoy feeling. So I bought it.

Then, for the next month or so, we accessory hunted. And when I say accessories, I mean down to a new water bottle and carrier. This has had the inadvertent side effect of me losing weight, so now all my favorite traveling pants don’t fit right, and even the brand new dress (that was already, like two sizes smaller than I was used to) was a bit looser on me than when I bought it.

So I was yellow from head to toe. Then, I rewatched Fantasmas, and in one of the first episodes, Julio says, “I’m allergic to the color yellow,” and I panicked and considered completely changing my outfit. Instead, I bought a yellow fan and arted on it. I mean, I should warn Julio, right?!

Now that that was settled, I asked Aubrey what color she planned to be, so that I could make us lollipops to match our outfits. She planned to be a vision in red, so I got to work.

The flavors:

• Me:
  • Color: YELLOW
  • Flavor: Jamie Lee Curtis’ famous lemon cake
• Aubrey
  • Color: RED
  • Flavor: Margarita (with salt, ofc)

And I already told you about Empty Gatorade Bottle, which is clear.

When we were getting ready for the show, I realized that we would look like ketchup and mustard together, and, honestly? I was fine with that.

And also, honestly? Only one person called us out on it, and he was, like, a street surveyor fella… and he did it twice!!!

puh.

Elsewhere, we got mad compliments and just left a general Orange energy wherever we went. I love moving through the world like that.

Here we are with the sign outside the show:

We cute, right? I did some last-minute accessory changes, cause Aubrey has a wealth of incredible stuff to choose from, and this cat bag felt too right to leave at home.

Color Theories by Julio Torres: The Show

We sat down and immediately made friends with the human sitting next to us.

Oh, something else I should tell you! In the pre-show materials, in one reel or whatever, Julio said that the audience should bring a notebook. Not one to do things halfway, we bought six notebooks (in case those around us needed them) and pens! My pen was yellow, and Aubrey’s was red, to match our outfits, of course.

So after we made friends, I asked our new friend if they would like a notebook and pen as well. Then a lollipop (Empty Gatorade Bottle flavor) and then we talked about how we came to be Julio fans (me: tv, her: coffee, aubrey: who?!) and what we expected from the show (all of us: a good brain-opening time).

Then we gushed over how cool the stage was, because y’all… Y’ALL… this is the part I can’t stop thinking about the most (aside from the fact that my OCD makes me do Navy Blue things all the time, which I really need to work on) is this incredible stage.

The stage itself is like a giant open book. I giddily took photos, but they turned out terrible, because I was (as I said) giddy.

On the left of the stage, you will see Spilled Wine and The Music Box, who were pretty integral to the show. The Boys kept things moving (and so did Bibo).

To start the show, they turned the page, and I teared up right then and there. I knew this was going to be magic.

I knew it even more when Julio arose from a hole in the book. Once he emerged, the hole was covered with a pop-up element that was used for projections.

Cause, yeah, this stage was very much like a magical pop-up book. It was delightfully analog. It felt like humans made it with love and fun and joy and more love.

The best way I could describe this show for my Orlando readers (or other cities with a large Fringe Festival) is “the best Fringe show you’ve ever seen.” It has that punk rock, non-commercial, DIY vibe that my body and brain crave.

There’s no story in this show, but there are stories.

side note: there is christmas music playing at this coffee shop? wtf. okay someone changed songs, I can continue.

The stories are about colors, told in a way to explain their relation to the world and the things that we know. We’re not talking, like, auras or literal things.

If we were being literal, we’d say Cookie Monster is blue, but he definitely is not. I’d put him at Yellow, probably. What depicts childlike wonder more than loving cookies, right?

In the show, Julio takes us through a small selection of colors and gives examples of things that they are. I’ve sprinkled some throughout the blog, but if I tell you all of them, you won’t want to watch yourself, and I need more people to see this show.

I will tell you that Julio was in a rolly chair, and used markers and a whiteboard (I assume it was a whiteboard creatively decorated with scrolls of paper to make it fit into the book feel). Delightfully analog, once again. Julio talked to the audience, not AT them, which I think is an essential nuance when doing a show like this one.

I will also tell you that Bibo was there!!! His job was to keep Julio on track time-wise. The clock face with the Dali-numbers would pop open, and Bibo would tell him what color Julio was supposed to be talking about.

I will also tell you that I got emotional at the end, because I realized that, even though I have done so much work on my brain the past few years, I still have some work to do on unintentionally putting myself into Navy Blue boxes. This show saw me, and it called me out in a way that I am very grateful for. If you see me struggling, ask me how my Yellow is doing, because it’s the color I want to keep alive inside me the most.

I will also tell you that thinking about and, after the show, talking about colors in this way made for some really philosophical conversations that I wasn’t expecting.

We did not, obviously, get to the hundreds of colors that he wanted to cover. And that’s okay, we could do a sequel, right? Let us know if you need help, Julio… Aubrey and I would love to make Color Theories 2: Electric Boogaloo, so I can find out your thoughts on the neons.

Here’s the thing, though… every single thing he said made sense to us. We didn’t disagree with any of his color theories and expanded on them based on the (very Navy Blue) ruleset he provided.

I think the definition we’re most proud of is Forest Green, which we think feels like anticipation.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, I took about four pages of notes.

The theater was dark, though, so I couldn’t make much sense out of them.

Maybe you can help?

Do I need to do an official wrap-up? Like, I think you know how I feel about this show. I loved it. 10/10. No notes.

Except, I need to know Julio Torres’ feelings about the neon colors, plz.