the7 battles thebest

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The Ice Factory Festival

The good news is that I have never before seen anything like the7 battles thebest. The bad news is I had no fucking clue what was going on. The first red flag was the presence of a glossary in the program. I hate having to "study up" prior to Act 1, Scene 1. That's MY time to swig a beer, cruise the audience and pee. Less than 5 minutes into the production I was already lost in this futuristic cyber-terrorism epic battle for something that only rock music could fix (guesstimation). Among the live band, the dancers, cameras, and projection screens, a rock group desperately tries to spell out the incatracies of their dire situation and after a while I gave up trying to comprehend their explanations and just hoped that they knew what they were talking about. When one of the big rock music numbers ended with a big classic rock flourish and the audience wasn't sure if they were supposed to clap or not, I got the sense that I wasn't the only person who was adrift in this Confusapalooza. The sad thing is that there are tons of very talented performers (Matt Schuneman- excellent vocals/guitar work- would be a great HGA if pix could be located) and technicians who have spent a lot of time and creative energy on this cybertheatermess. There is hope though as this is an episode in a larger artistic journey by this group called Anonymous Ensemble. Perhaps the next installment won't need a glossary.

Also blogged by [Aaron]