When you enter a show with plastic sheeting on the floor and the front row of the audience dressed in aprons, you know you are in for quite an interesting and messy experience. “Men of Steel” combined the craziness of a foodfight, a bit of cooking and innovative puppetry to create a show consisting of three adventures revolved around two Gingerbread Man Cookie Cutters.
The first tale involved a moon landing, the Biblical Garden of Eden and the violent colonisation of a foreign land. The second story was about a trip to the cinema, an infant saucepan, flirting cinema snack foods and the lure of said food to an untimely demise. The third revolved around a forest, a military campaign to create life (ie. dough) and a giant’s birthday. The first story was the most cohesive of the three with the others leaving me a bit lost, but the action itself was enough to hold my interest and keep me amused.
The stage consisted of a long laminated bench set on the floor of the Umbrella Revolution tent with rows of seating between it and the grandstand. Dressed in black chef’s apparel, the performers were situated behind the bench manipulating the cast and props. A recorded soundtrack provided some of the sound effects in addition to a entertaining musical score. Some musical pieces from well known films were included to help to give some of the sequences (particularly the second story with it’s many film references) the perfect mood to the frenetic action.
At the conclusion of each tale, the performers would walk into the audience offering food to the punters (the watermelon was safe, but avoid the rest!). A dangerous sounding alarm would sound, calling them back to their stage. The bench would be cleaned vigorously, more often than not sending even more mess the way of the audience. With a clean slate, the scene would be set for the next story.
The characterization of the “cast” was very well done. While sounding vaguely Russian at the start, all the dialogue was spoken in gibberish. This suited the small size of the stage and added to the cartoonish tone of the show. There were some ingenious methods of illustrating the actions of the steel men such as some bloodshed, a urinating man and a vomiting indigenous cookie.
In addition to the titular heroes of the show, they made clever use of other kitchen utensils and appliances in the telling of the stories. It was much like the creativity that children exhibit when using household objects in their play and it worked a treat. Foodstuffs were also used as secondary characters and props which resulted in much of it being flung in every direction as the sometimes violent action took place.
I had a great time at this show. I giggled at it’s silly action sequences, had a guilty laugh at the possibly unintentional slapstick (it got a bit slippery with all the debris around the performance space) and chuckled at the numerous filmic, biblical and cultural references. This show is perfect for a younger audience and would also appeal to an adult crowd looking for a fun show.
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