Fifteen minutes into Illuminopolis I was happy I had chosen a seat far away from the front row: it meant there was more room between me and the woman licking fire on stage.
Plus I could watch the startled jumps and contortions of people sitting in front of me each time Malibu the performer brought the flames close to her tongue. This was a show within the show, which was a cross between cabaret (our host Shortstaxx introduced the entertainers) and burlesque (Miss Joule traded her white gown for her birthday suit in one of the last scenes). In between there was some great music by The Sweater Set and cool visual effects by the dancers.
Lights were kept low to bring out glow-in-the-dark pieces of costume: two blue stars shooting up from Shortstaxx’s headband bounced around and brightened each time the lights got darker. Lights within performers’ skirts intensified as the stage faded to black.
One of the best moments happened during Miss Joule’s first solo when her costume glowed while her face remained hidden. Holding two yellow scarves, one in each hand, she spun her arms until the fabric became a blur of yellow moving itself across the dark stage. Another highlight was Na’la’s solo that looked like a belly dancing performance until the lights darkened to reveal her body wrapped in glow-in-the-dark bands. In both of these scenes the combination of movement and lighting enhanced the sense of transformation: parts of the women’s bodies disappeared into blackness to produce new species of beautifully coordinated creatures.
The evening progressed with Shortstaxx introducing each act (a solo or duet) and performers alternating appearances. When The Sweater Set came out I wondered how their singing could fit into this theme of luminosity. Sure enough: one song talked about a guy who bought his girlfriend a star through one of the “Name a Star” businesses. Although it was fun to see them join the mix of crazy costumes by adding lights to their dresses in their second set, their music is so awesome I was happy just to hear them play and sing. And thinking about it afterwards, their lyrics make sense in a show about illumination: these two women tell it like it is. Their songs are witty, clever, and catchy.
And Malibu, with two balls of fire swinging from her hands, was memorable as well. Although each of her scenes was captivating – I thought the first part when she licked sticks of fire was more exciting than the second when she swung an umbrella that was on fire – it was the last scene with glowing globes that was really spectacular. I liked how she glanced casually at us – a room of people in a relatively tiny theater – and then swung these dangerous objects vigorously around her body.
Shortstaxx said at the beginning of the show “Here in Illuminopolis we take trips of many kinds…” These performers do the same for us: they take away momentary worries or concerns as we board their flights of fancy. The costumes are fantastical and the artists’ sense of adventure is infectious. They made me realize why audiences and performers loved vaudeville about a century ago. It’s live, uncertain, and driven by a desire to connect people for a fleeting moment.
Toward the end of the evening Shortstaxx suggests Illuminopolis is not a physical place but a state of mind. It’s one state I’d like to visit again.
Illuminopolis has 4 more performances at The Warehouse, 645 New York Ave, NW, Washington, DC.
Tickets
Kate rates this a 4 out of a possible 5.
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Title: Illuminopolis
By: Tilted Torch
I think the show was quite a fun experience and it is worth seeing it, especially if you like dancing. And yes, Sweater Set is amazing. I felt like I was watching two muses that just got transferred to our world from some magic place 🙂 They were dreamy.
I think the narrator did a very poor job and pulls the show down. Were it been an amazing narrator the show could have felt much more pulled together. Her outfit and wig were also poor choices in my opinion (the white colors -especially the wig’s- made her look old, while a different selection could have make her look much more lively and sexier). I enjoyed watching the dancer and the fire show otherwise.
While I enjoyed each act individually, the show felt very cobbled together. The “bartender” was improvized and the narration did little for me in pulling the acts together. I also really like Sweater Set. They deserved their own full show. The other three acts were dancers. The dancers were fine to me. I think the show would have benefitted from it just being dancers. The narration was clunky and did not create the liberating and creative atmosphere I think was the goal. On a very positive note, I really liked to colors and lights. The music was very good. Overall, however, the show was disjointed and not at all cohesive. It clearly needed a lot more polish than it seemed to get for opening night.
Methinks there is a very generous grading scale at DC Theatre Scene, with most performances seeming to get a “4” simply for showing up. Illuminopolos is a prime example: Shortstaxx is far from polished and ends up just plain irritating as an emcee who takes up way too much airtime. The fire dancer does a nice trick or two and one performance with the fires twirling in the dark makes for an enticing picture. The belly dancer is just plain bad. And Jewel is just an average dancer with some lights wrapped around her. The only polished performers in the whole piece are the Sweater Set, two women who perform four origianl songs on a variety of instruments, with beautifully blended voices. They could have their own show that would be worthwhile. As for the rest of the bunch, don’t waste your time. I give this a 2.
PS. My wife, who sat next to me, enjoyed the show thoroughly. So take my view with a grain of salt and go see it. Or not.