T. CHARLES ERICKSON
Robert Montano in the George Street Playhouse production of “Small.”
Robert Montano, who grew up in Hempstead, Long Island, was a short child, and was bullied because of that. But he had an epiphany when his mother took him to The Belmont Park racetrack one day. He saw a bunch of men — short, like him. The jockeys.
“Twirling whips in their hands, tapping their boots, wearing these amazing, colorful shirts,” Montano says, with a sense of wonder, in his autobiographical one-man play “Small,” which is currently being presented by The George Street Playhouse at The New Brunswick Performing Arts Center, with direction by Jessi D. Hill.
“Everyone is focused on them,” Montano continues. “They have this air about themselves … like they are afraid of nothing.”
He also meets the jockey Roberto Pineda, who is a friend of his mother. He describes him as “a powerful man. He may be 5’4″ but up on (the horse) Mindy’s Patrol he’s a giant. Like a god. Like Bruce Lee. He looks me dead in the eye, and then gives me this cool kind of wink. … I’m gonna be a jockey!”
The bulk of “Small” — which is being performed in New Brunswick by Montano himself, who is now 64 (though he looks much younger) and a veteran dancer, actor and playwright — is devoted to his attempt to enter the ranks of these god-like figures, as a teenager. That may not sound like something that would make for a particularly dramatic 100 minutes at the theater (that’s how long “Small” runs, with no intermission). But I assure you, “Small” is quite memorable and intense.
You see, Montano was indeed very small as a kid. But after he made his decision to pursue jockeying, he continued to grow. Though never tall, he shot past the average jockey height (5’2″) and kept going. As he tells his story, he relates the heights he grew to: 5’3″, 5’4″, and so on. Eventually — horror of horrors! — 5’8″.
There have been jockeys that tall, but they are rare. That is because jockeys have to weigh in, under a certain number, to be able to race. And it is hard for an athletic male who is 5’6″ or 5’7″, let alone 5’8″, to get down to 106 pounds. Yet Montano kept trying, resorting to increasingly desperate measures, both natural (not eating, going on long runs, spending time in the steam room) and unnatural (pills), to conquer “the monster” (the jockeys’ nickname for the scale).
T. CHARLES ERICKSON
Robert Montano in “Small.”
Montano does get to experience the job he dreamed about, doing some professional jockeying. But he never gets very far in the field, and has to go through hell just to achieve his small amount of success. It feels like he is beating his head against the wall, persisting in trying to do something he is destined to fail at, and the play does get a bit tiresome, for a while, as he keeps refusing to see something that should be obvious to him.
Helping us to feel the strain, Montano — who talks about how much he idolized dancers before he transferred his hero worship to jockeys — remains in constant, sometimes frantic motion around the stable-like set (designed by Christopher and Justin Swader), throughout the entire show. When he portrays his younger self, he effectively conveys his innocence, his drive, and his exuberance, and he also “becomes” many other characters, including his hard-working, well-intentioned but flawed parents (his mother has a gambling problem; his father, a drinking problem) and the dignified, dauntingly talented Pineda, who becomes his mentor. He even transforms himself into a horse, at times. It feels like a real feat of endurance, just for him to make it through the show.
The play climaxes with him hitting rock bottom. But then he has another epiphany, reconnects with his love of dancing, and embarks on a more sustainable life for himself in the world of entertainment. This almost feels like an epilogue, but it allows him to end this sometimes dark play on an upbeat note.
And this final segment has a priceless moment when Montano, still a very young man, tells his parents he wants to be a dancer. They seem relieved. In comparison with the more impossible dream of becoming a jockey, it must have seemed like a practical move.
George Street Playhouse will present “Small” at The New Brunswick Performing Arts Center through Feb. 2. Visit georgestreetplayhouse.org.
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