Reach.txt

http://www.nightnews.net/fringe2008.htm#joor

Just Out of Reach - Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, a Theatre 
of Music production
venue :: Rocket @ Demarco Roxy Art House
see links :: http://www.pnme.org/
category :: Theatre
Reviewed date :: 03 08 08

Review: This was the European debut of the Pittsburgh New Music 
Ensemble and their latest production 'Just Out of Reach,' in a 
style which they term, 'theatre of music.' PNME strive to, 'present
new music in a way you won't encounter anywhere else,' and have 
a mission to, 'strive for more compelling presentations that will
challenge, delight and move.' PNME go beyond concert routines and
aim to engage their audiences in theatre productions with a live
musical accompaniment. Their remarkable show is set in the Underworld,
in this case the cavernous main space at the Roxy, Rocket venue. 
The opening creates an appropriate sense of foreboding as the Greek
gods, in the guise of members of the musical ensemble, take up
their instruments and begin by playing some haunting notes. The
story is of the punishments of Tantalus, Narcissus and Sisyphus
who have been condemned to eternal torment by Zeus. The prisoners
are offered the chance to end their endless torments through suicide
but reject the offer. The story is about the god’s inquiry into 
this unusual and seemingly irrational refusal. The clever narrative
mixes novel twists, anomalous cultural references such as Shakespeare,
Camus, Steinbeck, TV ads and game shows et al that are obviously 
not bound to the time of the classics and PNME's music in an original
and amusing presentation. This gives the show a strong contemporary
American cultural feel, as it strives to develop a moral tale out of
these otherwise obscure Greek legends, making it accessible to a 
schooled, modern, US audience. The narratives of the three main 
characters are interwoven and told in music, song, re-enacted 
flashbacks, multimedia and comedy. Sisyphus, crafty, unscrupulous,
murderous and deceitful is the most eloquent character and played
by co-writer, Kevin Noe with madcap humour throughout. Tantalus
is made to re-enact slaying his son and offering him to the gods
in a feast repeatedly. Narcissus played by Robert Frankenberry
stares at himself in the Styx, occasionally singing very sweetly
indeed, and the gods of the PNME play their music masterfully
while they try and make sense of their prisoners. Sisyphus provides
the clowning and comic relief to the tragedy of their lives and
predicaments and these are also acted out again and again. He 
moves the tempo of the plot into a slick, showbiz, game show parody,
and demands applause for, '..one purgatory of a show!' This last
has the audience in stitches, as does his parody of Tantalus' crimes
played out with a ventriloquist’s dummy. The shows interweaving of
humour, parody, pathos and tragedy is marvellously entertaining 
and both theatrical and musical presentations are thoroughly
professional. In the end the prisoners opt for eternity over
extinction, the futility of their situations non-withstanding.
In this project, co writers Kevin Noe and Kieren MacMillan have
taken their line from Albert Camus and his famous essay 'The Myth
of Sisyphus.' This last sees modern working life as essentially
Sisyphean or futile but nonetheless heroic and possibly still
to be enjoyed, once this pointlessness is embraced! A rather
unusual, well-executed and attended American production with
a good turnout from the visiting teams fans, all whooping support
at the end.
4 gold bats

by J C Vassallo