Besides the Ultima Vez dancers and Woven Hand a frog was part of the cast too. For a while at least. First our green friend was shown to the audience so we could see that it was a live frog. Blissfully unaware that it was doomed and about to meet its maker very shortly. Because the frog ended up in a blender, some beverage was added and Ultima Vez top dog Wim Vandekeybus himself prepared a Kermit-flavoured cocktail that one of his dancers drank.

Was this a tribute to the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow? And Matt the Tube (a.k.a the Duke of Puke) in particular? During that show said duke's stomach is filled through a plastic tube with beer, ketchup and various other liquids. Then the contents of his stomach is pumped out and poured into a glass and thirsty audience members are invited to drink this concoction, which is bile-green. The Kermit cocktail was white by the way. An indication it was a trick? Is Vandekeybus as dexterous as a magician and did he manage to fool us by sleight of hand and did the frog not go into the blender?

Does it matter? It does make obvious that Vandekeybus doesn't shy away from cheap effects and adolescent shock tactics. If a brat blows up a frog you might call it mischief, if a grown man does it, it seems somewhat pathetic. But that's more than enough about that frog. For now.

With Sonic Boom in mind we were expecting something in the same vein. Meaning we were prepared for the worst :-). Those fears seemed to come true in the first scene. A recumbent dressed man is sleeping, snoring loudly. A female dancer walks up to him, takes off her knickers, bends over, proudly displaying her bum and more in a Basic Instinct way and starts to ride him. Panting and moaning. Not that we're prudish like Queen Victoria, but in this day and age when you're bombarded with sex in the media and advertising and it all has become as banal as Menno Buch (only viewers of Dutch TV will get that analogy) this scene seemed vulgar and also out of date. Out of date because once sex or nudity on stage was revolutionary. Now it is so common and trite, meaningless and harmless you wonder why people (frogman in this case) still resort to this tactic.

During the first scene accompanied with music (Cripplegate) the dancers stand on tumblers turned upside-down. Well, it at least explains Cripplegate's subtitle: Standing On Glass. Why they are standing on glasses in the first place remains unclear. David Eugene Edwards emerges from behind the backdrop. Thrumming his banjo. Walking around on stage, looking slightly out of place. The rest of the band is still behind the backdrop which comes down in a following scene. The band (in the same line-up as earlier this year) is sitting down in a corner of the stage next to a projection screen which covers most of the width of the stage. And that screen is used very well. There are underwater images. And when dancers jump through the screen you immediately see the cloud of air-bubbles that is caused by them diving into the water and then you see them swimming below the surface. Jumping back on stage through the screen they emerge from the body of water. Very inventive and the whole scene, which is long and carried by the repetitive powerful sounds of Animalitos, is stunning. The dancing is raw, not refined, and vigorous, energetic. And most dance scenes are pretty good. But unfortunately they are always followed by a non-dancing sequence which is pretty poor.

This is only the second Vandekybus production we have seen but the similarities are striking. We're watching The Idiots again. People screaming their heads off hysterically. Speaking in non-existing languages and when they were talking (mostly) English usually it was usually gibberish but masked as profundity. Hitting each other, running around naked and spitting was part of the show again too. Though this time the spitting was more sophisticated as someone tried to land a stream of his saliva right in someone else's ass crack. A Butthole Spitter instead of a Surfer we guess. People behaving like pigs was new on the menu. As was throwing pig food into the audience. Granted, there were a few brief amusing and imaginative fragments during the non-dancing scenes, but mostly it was, sometimes literary, hogwash.

Over to Woven Hand. Logically the Blush album was played in its entirety and in the same order and manner. Meaning prolonged and bare-sounding soundscapes. And that worked well. You were very aware of the music, but not of the band because they sat inconspicuously in their little corner - with a perfect view of the female dancers changing costumes, hidden from the public by a rack of clothes, but almost right in front of the band - and your eyes were not drawn to them at the back of the stage but to what the dancers were up to.

The only time the Woven Handers attracted attention was when they participated in the play. Yes, not only did we have audience participation, there was band participation too. Shane Trost and Daniel McMahon helped to build a wall in front of the screen. A wall which later collapsed and according to the programme that referred to a skyscraper under attack. The building and consequent knocking down of the wall reminded us only of Pink Floyd. We thought they would start playing Another Brick In the Wall any moment. Shane and Ordy Garrison also were involved as bystanders in one or two scenes right on the edge of stage, feeling a bit awkward so it seemed. But Daniel was even involved in a dance sequence, though he only had to walk around onstage, coming across self-assured.

Before the wall was built the frog returned. On screen it emerged alive from the mouth of a dancer. So it's not only cats who have more than one life :-) A field-mouse came out of the mouth of another dancer. Based on the dancing we can imagine what enticed David to be involved in this production. And musically it worked well. Based on the acting, or what passes for that, we can't quite make head nor tail of it. And we're not specifying what animal that head or tail belongs to :-) All in all, Blush was definitely a better production then Sonic Boom, but Vandekeybus should just stick to dancing and leave acting and frogs alone.

by TYFC