THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 29, 1997 TAG: 9701290035
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: DANCE REVIEW
SOURCE: BY JUDITH HATCHER, SPECIAL TO THE DAILY BREAK
LENGTH: 50 lines
NO TRIP DOWN the rabbit hole was ever this much fun.
Mummenschanz, the talented trio of Floriana Frasetto, Bernie Schurch and John Charles Murphy, enchanted all at Ogden Hall in Hampton on Monday night.
They are hard to define - a little mime, a little dance, a lotta neat props. And they are hard to describe - ``well, this thing that looks like a pile of round, square, rectangular oblongs gets up off its, uh, feet sorta things and . . . '' But Mummenschanz is not hard to watch or understand.
All our follies and foibles, our fears and flights of fancy, our loves and our losses, are presented in the global language of movement. Whether the emotional expression comes from fluorescent Slinkys or flying carpets, Mummenschanz offers us an honest view of ourselves through gentle rose-colored glasses. We will never again see ourselves, nor so-called inanimate objects such as toilet paper and office note stickies, in quite the same way again. In eloquent silence, we were given the chance to sit back and gain an incredible new perspective on humanity.
Lightning bolt ribbons ripped and twisted on stage. Disembodied faces and ears appeared, fluid and flexible. A speckled spud melted over the edge of the stage and heaved a huge sigh, making faces at us. The world's longest umbilical cord joined twins, causing them to tie themselves in a neat knot.
Mobile wire heads and appendages materialized. With the slip of a lip or the twist of a leg, anger softened to smiles or a sturdy male became a dainty female.
Square-headed stick-um faces illustrated the infernal, eternal tale of miscommunication; one rip of the page or one scribble of a pen would take the saga to its next soap-operatic level. Toilet paper became tears, ears or tied tongues.
One audience favorite was the dough-face sequence, with its ever-changing forms. An artist literally created himself. A bull was born and a matador soon followed to fight it. A dog and a master, suns and rhinos, and elephants and eagles all made appearances, then were squished to be reborn, ending with a hilarious, um, face-off.
Mobile popcorn bags, metallic Stay-Puft marshmallow men, inflatable slo-mo Sumo wrestlers - all our pretenses and posturings were presented to us.
Who needs computerized special effects and Sensurround with paper, pen and Mummenschanz around? ILLUSTRATION: DANCE REVIEW
Mummenschanz
Monday at Ogden Hall in Hampton, presented by the Hampton Arts
Commission