Stage Review - "The Aluminum Show"
by Becky Kinder - Originally Published 03/13/2011
What some call “reminiscent of Blue Man Group, Cirque du Soleil and STOMP” is more of a scraping at the residue of those shows. “The Aluminum Show,” in its West Coast debut Saturday at The Carpenter Center, was extremely energetic but also lacking in many ways.
Created by Israeli dancer, Ilan Azriel, the troupe of dancers and puppeteers uses recovered materials from industrial factories for their set, costumes and prop pieces. What could have been an exciting show ended up being an incongruent set of ideas thrown together to create a production without a solid through line. What little story line the show had to carry us from scene to scene seemed like an after-thought.
Instead of a variety show with each scene having its own story line, “The Aluminum Show’s” story line popped up sporadically: a “mother and father” of aluminum tubes has somehow lost their little baby tube, Slinky. Instead of being able to follow each of these characters, if you will, through their adventures in search of each other, we are thrown through a series of scenes that don’t flow well or make much sense, especially all together.
The audience interaction was eaten up by delighted children in the audience, though this interaction never made sense to the staging of the show and was uneventful, overall. I think the kids reacted the way they did because they went from seeing something on stage to it being in their hands. It’s the same as fans that fawn over celebrity chewing gum; it’s something they see every day, but because it’s now touched by a performer, it’s somehow worth more. The children often fought over the props, breaking several of them in their tugging from all sides, leaving afterwards with pieces and sheets of aluminum products their parents could buy at the supermarket or party supply store. Did Azriel think we would react to the feel of aluminum the same way we did when we felt our first sting ray at Sea World?
The original music by Ivri Lider was wonderful and aided in keeping the audience in the high-energy tone the show strived for. The dancers were talented on their own, but missed the cohesive movements even their most basic choreography required, especially in their most STOMP inspired scene of playing a song with their tubes.
Each scene would have been better served by Daniel (in the goggles) and Slinky finding each other and going on a journey together to find the latter’s parents, coming across each scene as thought they’ve traveled to somewhere new, rather than it just being a new gimmick of playing with foil bits.
The large puppets the team used at times were not as magical as they should have been because they were being controlled by the people, usually without a costume change, we just saw running around in a bizarre attempt at choreography. The one time the cast did put on black shifts to work a “puppet” was ruined by their urban “moccasins” and pants bottoms peeking out from underneath.
A more focused story line would serve this production well. In the factory pillow production scene, why not have Daniel and Slinky come through this scene of people, have it be quitting time at the end of their shift, and then have the giant puppet come to life on its own?
This show suffers from too many ideas that are not truly connected, weird moments of breaking the fourth wall that don’t generally work, inconstant characters and visuals, and too much reliance on the high energy aspect to carry the show’s entertainment value.
The best moments were the prologue of rules and one (of the way too many) curtain calls with the motion capture wall at the end. Yes, it could potentially be a fun show to bring certain ages of kids to (it’s a family-friendly show, but not for the tiny ones; it’s just to scary for them and will make them cry, as one child did through most of this show), but the ticket price is too steep for the quality of show, is not really adult-friendly but there is potential lurking in the Reynolds Wrap; it’s just too half-baked.
What some call “reminiscent of Blue Man Group, Cirque du Soleil and STOMP” is more of a scraping at the residue of those shows. “The Aluminum Show,” in its West Coast debut Saturday at The Carpenter Center, was extremely energetic but also lacking in many ways.
Created by Israeli dancer, Ilan Azriel, the troupe of dancers and puppeteers uses recovered materials from industrial factories for their set, costumes and prop pieces. What could have been an exciting show ended up being an incongruent set of ideas thrown together to create a production without a solid through line. What little story line the show had to carry us from scene to scene seemed like an after-thought.
Instead of a variety show with each scene having its own story line, “The Aluminum Show’s” story line popped up sporadically: a “mother and father” of aluminum tubes has somehow lost their little baby tube, Slinky. Instead of being able to follow each of these characters, if you will, through their adventures in search of each other, we are thrown through a series of scenes that don’t flow well or make much sense, especially all together.
The audience interaction was eaten up by delighted children in the audience, though this interaction never made sense to the staging of the show and was uneventful, overall. I think the kids reacted the way they did because they went from seeing something on stage to it being in their hands. It’s the same as fans that fawn over celebrity chewing gum; it’s something they see every day, but because it’s now touched by a performer, it’s somehow worth more. The children often fought over the props, breaking several of them in their tugging from all sides, leaving afterwards with pieces and sheets of aluminum products their parents could buy at the supermarket or party supply store. Did Azriel think we would react to the feel of aluminum the same way we did when we felt our first sting ray at Sea World?
The original music by Ivri Lider was wonderful and aided in keeping the audience in the high-energy tone the show strived for. The dancers were talented on their own, but missed the cohesive movements even their most basic choreography required, especially in their most STOMP inspired scene of playing a song with their tubes.
Each scene would have been better served by Daniel (in the goggles) and Slinky finding each other and going on a journey together to find the latter’s parents, coming across each scene as thought they’ve traveled to somewhere new, rather than it just being a new gimmick of playing with foil bits.
The large puppets the team used at times were not as magical as they should have been because they were being controlled by the people, usually without a costume change, we just saw running around in a bizarre attempt at choreography. The one time the cast did put on black shifts to work a “puppet” was ruined by their urban “moccasins” and pants bottoms peeking out from underneath.
A more focused story line would serve this production well. In the factory pillow production scene, why not have Daniel and Slinky come through this scene of people, have it be quitting time at the end of their shift, and then have the giant puppet come to life on its own?
This show suffers from too many ideas that are not truly connected, weird moments of breaking the fourth wall that don’t generally work, inconstant characters and visuals, and too much reliance on the high energy aspect to carry the show’s entertainment value.
The best moments were the prologue of rules and one (of the way too many) curtain calls with the motion capture wall at the end. Yes, it could potentially be a fun show to bring certain ages of kids to (it’s a family-friendly show, but not for the tiny ones; it’s just to scary for them and will make them cry, as one child did through most of this show), but the ticket price is too steep for the quality of show, is not really adult-friendly but there is potential lurking in the Reynolds Wrap; it’s just too half-baked.
Labels: Becky Kinder, dance, Ilan Azriel, recycle, The Aluminum Show, The Carpenter Center
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