In Color Theories at Performance Space New York, playwright and principal performer Julio Torres employs a large pop-up book to support his theory of the color green.
“I’ve heard that this is being referred to as an Off-Broadway play,” sighs comedian Julio Torres at the outset of Color Theories. Julio, author and leading actor, casts a knowing glance across the audience, pausing for a comically timed beat, and shakes his head laconically: “No … no, no, no, no. … That could not be further from the truth.” As this sly, charming theater piece zips along, however, it becomes clear that Color Theories is indeed an Off-Broadway play, not merely a spiffily staged stand-up routine.
Julio is a five-year veteran of the Saturday Night Live writers’ room, with four Emmy nominations to show for it. Since leaving SNL in 2021, he has been writing for television (HBO’s Fantasmas, My Favorite Shapes, and Los Espookys) and feature films (A24’s Problemista), and also acting in both those media. Color Theories, which has no director’s credit in its playbill, is his first stage venture. Julio recently told the Brooklyn Rail that, in addition to being author and performer, he’s “technically the director.”
Julio regards his experiments in shadow puppetry with evident satisfaction. Photographs by Emilio Madrid.
For 80 minutes, Julio holds court, expatiating on the ostensible significance of a handful of colors. Scenic designer Tommaso Ortino has created a visually delightful environment, transforming the playing area into a giant children’s book, with pieces of the stage floor popping up to create various effects. At center stage, there’s an immense notebook for Julio to draw on, and, to one side, a wobbly looking grandfather clock in which Bibo, a fascistic robot, stands guard, ensuring that performances run on time. According to Julio, Bibo (Joe Rumrill) “used to be a Roomba but got new parts and got promoted to assistant and now he’s an aspiring actor.” Drew Rollins and Nick Meyers round out the cast as Spilled Wine and Music Box, respectively, diligent dogsbodies who change scenery and assist Julio in various ways.
Julio’s mission is to explore the “interiority” of colors. His scientific method, to the extent he has one, is intuitive and analogic. The villains among the colors are navy blue (which is all about authority and excessive force) and red (anger, rage, surprise, shock). The most virtuous colors are yellow (“the color of the platonic ideal of childhood”) and green (serene and soothing). Contemplating the nature of particular colors, Julio rambles: yellow is “joy, it’s wonder, it’s what parents want their kids to be.” Green is “rain, a waterfall.” Wacky as this stuff sounds, it makes a certain cockeyed sense that’s enhanced by the comedian’s winning delivery.
Julio uses a clear painter’s palette and finger paints to elucidate his ideas about primary colors in Color Theories.
Julio’s underlying aim is exposing what’s ridiculous and troubling in the way we’re living in the strange year 2025. He illustrates his theories with meandering yarns and fables in a preschool story-time style, spiced at times with bawdy details and arch inflections. Take, for instance, his narrative gloss on the theories of navy blue, red, and purple. When Julio expresses uneasiness about transferring digital content from his damaged iPhone to a replacement device by himself, an Apple Store “Genius” assures him the procedure is simple and foolproof.
The transfer, of course, fails, and Julio wails: “I now have no money, and I can’t even get into the subway because they don’t even take cash at some stations anymore. I can’t call a car. I can’t call a friend. I have fallen through the crevices of society for my inability to know passwords, use the cloud, and my unwillingness to comply with the rules of navy blue.” That dilemma, he says, explains purple: red (anger) making fun of navy blue (authority). This neurotic moment from his life as a consumer is funny, poignant, and recognizable for any audience member ever infantilized by technological complexity—and, with our society’s constantly accelerating tech dependency, who hasn’t experienced that?
Julio is part of an increasing roster of comedians who’ve occupied New York theaters for substantial runs, eliciting lamentations about the stand-up industry colonizing New York theater. Some simply offer stand-up in a “legitimate theater,” though advertising it as a full-bodied play. Others (Ryan Hadad in last season’s Hold Me in the Water and Bill Posley with this season’s The Day I Accidentally Went to War, for instance) accomplish something more profound.
This profundity is unrelated to specialized stage direction or intricate theatrical design. It’s a matter of unity in the overall narrative, recognizable conflict, depth of psychological insight, and a certain level of dramatic seriousness (which isn’t synonymous with solemnity). Such comedian-instigated entertainments deserve to be categorized as drama. So, yes, Julio, yours is a bona fide Off-Broadway play.
Color Theories runs through Oct. 5 at Performance Space New York (150 First Ave., 4th Floor). Performance dates and times are somewhat irregular and may be viewed, along with other information, at color-theories.com.
Playwright: Julio Torres
Scenic Design: Tommaso Ortino
Costume Design: Muriel Parra
Lighting Design: Emmanuel Delgado
Sound Design: Christopher Darbassie
Projections & Video Design: André Azevedo Sweet
Puppets & Puppetry: Monkey Boy Productions
