My overall impression
After the Sunday 4 p.m. performance of Hyperbole: Origins, the creative directors of Rogue Artists Ensemble asked for audience feedback, issuing a disclaimer that they were only 3 weeks into production, and it showed. So to be fair to that in-utero creative process, I’ll leave the full critical review for your discretionary perusal here:
http://okapicrux.wordpress.com/2010/06/20/hyperbole-origins-fringe-theater-review/
and this snippet:
— So many creation myths are downright frightful, of measly humans tempting the volatile moods of nature’s gods who move the amassing and destructive forces that shape our known existence over a precarious balance, and I was waiting to be struck by that visceral awe. —
I commend RAE for the scale of the project they are tackling. There is a tremendous body of origin stories that they are drawing from and threading them into one narrative structure is daunting, but the individual acts are well on their way to becoming tightly crafted vignettes.
While their use of digital media is by no-means groundbreaking, actually I may even describe it as a hugely missed opportunity, the musical soundtracks they’ve chosen to match the selected tales are perfect, and I always appreciate the rustic charm of sets designed from mundane objects and very sparse yet elemental costumes of the human hand.
In retelling a Pacific Northwest myth of the raven who stole and released the celestial bodies into lighting the world, the transformation between anthropomorphic costume and the infinite scale of a shadow play felt like gathering around a campfire tale under the open night sky.
Certain scenes harken back to the intimacy of puppet theater and the simplicity of a traveling minstrel show in exploring the age-old themes of creation and belonging.
It was meant to be the most comprehensive multimedia collaboration they’ve endeavored to date, so hopefully there will be a more fluid narrative between each play within the play by the time their official season begins. There are few productions whose incorporation of the mask into drama can be as transformative to the theater experience as with this troupe.
