I went to see Travelling Jewish Theatre's Bright River
at the Julia Morgan Theater last night. It's a bit hard to describe.
Technically, I suppose it's a play, but it's more like
storytelling set
to music, though without being a musical. All the spoken performance is
done by one person, the play's author, who mostly plays a detective
who
goes into the Afterlife to try to find a cop's daugher who died
grieving over her soldier boyfriend, who was killed in Iraq. He also
does monologues from the point of view of the soldier and a demon.
Very simple set, no costumes to speak of apart from a hat and basic clothes (and I have to confess to being mesmerized/distracted by a patch of sweat that stained the lead guy's t-shirt right on the belly-button about halfway through the play.)
The most extraordinary part of the show is the music. There's a bassist, a violinist, and the main guy plays the flute. But he doesn't just play the flute - he makes mouth noises on it, in such a way that he's playing percussion and melody at the same time. It's very cool. The others create interesting and beautiful noises with their instruments as well. At one point, they also pick up water bottles and blow on the tops. Who needs Pan flutes?
The real ace in the hole is "Kid Beyond", AKA Andrew Chaiken, formerly of the HouseJacks, though the program bio doesn't mention that band. Last time I saw him, he was performing with them in a reunion concert, and the crowd went crazy during his solo. He is even more amazing now. No longer limited to being a hip-hop human drum machine, he sang in a high, ethereal voice, impersonated a gun battle, portrayed a bouncer at a bird conference (don't ask me to explain) and did a very convincing imitation of a bus station.
It's going to be at the Juiia Morgan for two more weeks, so check it out! (And Wednesdays and Thursdays are "pay what you can" nights...)
Very simple set, no costumes to speak of apart from a hat and basic clothes (and I have to confess to being mesmerized/distracted by a patch of sweat that stained the lead guy's t-shirt right on the belly-button about halfway through the play.)
The most extraordinary part of the show is the music. There's a bassist, a violinist, and the main guy plays the flute. But he doesn't just play the flute - he makes mouth noises on it, in such a way that he's playing percussion and melody at the same time. It's very cool. The others create interesting and beautiful noises with their instruments as well. At one point, they also pick up water bottles and blow on the tops. Who needs Pan flutes?
The real ace in the hole is "Kid Beyond", AKA Andrew Chaiken, formerly of the HouseJacks, though the program bio doesn't mention that band. Last time I saw him, he was performing with them in a reunion concert, and the crowd went crazy during his solo. He is even more amazing now. No longer limited to being a hip-hop human drum machine, he sang in a high, ethereal voice, impersonated a gun battle, portrayed a bouncer at a bird conference (don't ask me to explain) and did a very convincing imitation of a bus station.
It's going to be at the Juiia Morgan for two more weeks, so check it out! (And Wednesdays and Thursdays are "pay what you can" nights...)
