A Review of “My Journey of Decay” by Victoria Libertore

Perfomance Art? I think not.

Victoria Libertore

To call Victoria Libertore a performer would be a gross misjudgment and error in classification. She is more what I might call an emotional conductor moving not an audience, but witnesses, from one powerful vignette to another masterfully giving us a glimpse into what might be a tragic event to some with such loving tenderness or brutal honesty then pulling us back just as we are at the brink of “Oh, this is just too much!”

She shamelessly shows us a glimpse deep into her pain and her mother’s mental illness and then once we are completely involved, maybe painfully involved, she humorously and deftly brings us back into the room to safely with a sigh of relief.

I saw the show almost like a Tai Chi exercise with Vic gracefully moving our emotions like energy this way and that. I felt a sort of shock at then end as the lights went on and had to take a few moments to gather the pieces of my heart and soul up off the floor wishing I could just sit there in silence for a half hour and process the deep feelings I had just had. Wishing my therapist was there to hold my hand through them.

Did I relate to the material?

Oh yes. There were so many parallels…my mouth full of cracked in half teeth I ignore until they abscess because of my neglect due to fear of violation because of abuse and molesting by doctors and dentists; my own 30 year struggle and somewhat failure to “get” meditation and finally only use of it for pain management. Then there is the foods, my love of stinky cheeses and steak tartar which my glamorous but sociopathic Parisian Sommelier father was famous for, the mental illness of both my parents including my depressed alcoholic mother. Finally, there is changing my mother’s diapers when she had cancer and the intimacy of that moment and the one when she took her last breath in my arms.

And then there’s her sexiness.

Who else could pull grapes out of their tits and a peel a banana penis with such dignity? Victoria doesn’t turn you on by what she does so much a who she is in front of you. No safety-pinned-closed curtains here Victoria, we see it all. We witness sensuality on a cellular level through a backward jerk or a sidelong glance or even through stillness that is somehow ripe with tension ready to climax. I did not have expectations of this show because I though I do know Victoria personally, I had only seen her perform briefly as a hag tour guide at Angels & Accordions in Greenwood cemetery and through the day every time I saw her I could never bring myself to feel I knew her. I was afraid of her because her character was so intact. I have been around actors, singers and performers all my life so I don’t see myself as a naive fan when I say this woman has extraordinary talent. My only regret is that I waited to se the show until Sunday. Had I gone Friday, I would have been able to see it two more times.