Post by darkstar on Nov 3, 2005 1:11:26 GMT
Oregonian News
'Tao Soup' A Magical Mixing Of Opposites
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
RICHARD WATTENBERG
Followers of the Tao understand the emptiness in fullness and the fullness of emptiness. But you don't have to be a Taoist to appreciate how The Drunken Monkeys' play "Tao Soup" fills an empty performance space with entertaining theater.
Having ladled out their delicious concoction to receptive audiences during a brief, successful Los Angeles run, The Drunken Monkeys return to their home base at Brooklyn Bay.
Directed by Scott Kelman, "Tao Soup" offers Portlanders a tasty combination of playful, sometimes wickedly satiric, humor and metaphysical meditation. East and West, silence and sound, artful chaos and animated order are harmonized within a magical but carefully crafted theater event.
The performance piece consists of six parts. After the introductory "Disclaimer," each of the following sections explores the tensions between a particular Taoist theme and modern Western sensibility. Appropriately, the last piece focuses on "Death." In this emotionally stunning conclusion a clinically cold, scientific perspective on physical decay is absorbed into a spiritually affirming theatrical poetry.
What especially drives this production is the skill and commitment of each of this tightly interwoven ensemble's five members. Strutting, spinning or sweeping through the space -- or just standing still gazing inwardly -- Melanya Helene, Angie Lawless, Kristy Rose Leech, Marc Otto and Jamie M. Rea are all entrancing.
Each of the production's parts, except for "Disclaimer," highlights one of the five performers. Clarity and intensity mark the performers' solo efforts, but even as each actor becomes the focus for a segment, the achievements of the ensemble absorb our attention. The other four performers skillfully work together to form a kind of choral counterpoint -- shaping imaginative movement, gestural and vocal patterns that provide a living stage environment against and within which the soloist performs.
For the run's first weekend, onstage vocal work was provocatively enhanced by the addition of percussion support from John Densmore, best known as a member of the legendary rock 'n' roll band the Doors. Densmore may leave, but the show will delight adventurous theatergoers for two more weekends.
www.oregonlive.com/entertainment/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/entertainment/1130883922204980.xml&coll=7
'Tao Soup' A Magical Mixing Of Opposites
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
RICHARD WATTENBERG
Followers of the Tao understand the emptiness in fullness and the fullness of emptiness. But you don't have to be a Taoist to appreciate how The Drunken Monkeys' play "Tao Soup" fills an empty performance space with entertaining theater.
Having ladled out their delicious concoction to receptive audiences during a brief, successful Los Angeles run, The Drunken Monkeys return to their home base at Brooklyn Bay.
Directed by Scott Kelman, "Tao Soup" offers Portlanders a tasty combination of playful, sometimes wickedly satiric, humor and metaphysical meditation. East and West, silence and sound, artful chaos and animated order are harmonized within a magical but carefully crafted theater event.
The performance piece consists of six parts. After the introductory "Disclaimer," each of the following sections explores the tensions between a particular Taoist theme and modern Western sensibility. Appropriately, the last piece focuses on "Death." In this emotionally stunning conclusion a clinically cold, scientific perspective on physical decay is absorbed into a spiritually affirming theatrical poetry.
What especially drives this production is the skill and commitment of each of this tightly interwoven ensemble's five members. Strutting, spinning or sweeping through the space -- or just standing still gazing inwardly -- Melanya Helene, Angie Lawless, Kristy Rose Leech, Marc Otto and Jamie M. Rea are all entrancing.
Each of the production's parts, except for "Disclaimer," highlights one of the five performers. Clarity and intensity mark the performers' solo efforts, but even as each actor becomes the focus for a segment, the achievements of the ensemble absorb our attention. The other four performers skillfully work together to form a kind of choral counterpoint -- shaping imaginative movement, gestural and vocal patterns that provide a living stage environment against and within which the soloist performs.
For the run's first weekend, onstage vocal work was provocatively enhanced by the addition of percussion support from John Densmore, best known as a member of the legendary rock 'n' roll band the Doors. Densmore may leave, but the show will delight adventurous theatergoers for two more weekends.
www.oregonlive.com/entertainment/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/entertainment/1130883922204980.xml&coll=7