All pictures courtesey of Toneelgroep Amsterdam

Headlines from Sonic Boom reviews in two Dutch newspapers. We at TYFC would have gone for the following heading: "The Idiots revisited or Pompous Jackass".

"It is a deeply moving performance which makes you silent and, when the show is over, it makes you feel like you're stepping out of a dream. The way in which Vandekeybus manages to fill the stage is that hallucinating. Not only with magnificent dancers whose control of their bodies borders on the impossible, but this time with actors too. The fact that the actors have already lost the beauty of youth makes the cycle of life inevitable". So reads the closing paragraph from the ecstatic Volkskrant review that calls Sonic Boom a moving production by Wim Vandekeybus.

The tone of the NRC Handelsblad review is positive too, but with a few marginal notes. "The scene in which one of the dancers cuts his chest with a piece of broken glass upsets the balance which Vandekeybus as the director had so carefully constructed. That raw physical realism doesn't come to an understanding with the subtle acting of the three players who can bring about a battlefield with a glance or gesture". The critic concludes that Sonic Boom isn't as thrilling or hypnotizing as advertised but that it does work intriguingly as a contemporary mysterious fairy-tale. She also said that sturdy eclectic folk by 16 Horsepower had tempted the Ultima Vez dancers to barmy folklore with Scottish steps. There was indeed a scene with "tongue in cheek riverdancing", but not to 16 Horsepower music.

And that brings us to David Eugene Edwards' involvement with Sonic Boom. But not before we include one paragraph from a preview of the show, an interview with Wim Vandekeybus, published in NRC Handelsblad before the première: "For the music Vandekeybus invited an old acquaintance: David Eugene Edwards of the alternative folk group 16 Horsepower from Denver. He had worked with solo-music from Edwards before with Blush. The Fleming calls it hardly melodic music. By means of traditional instruments like the banjo or squeezebox Edwards makes appropriate atmospheric music. Like it becomes night radio, there are songs by other artist too, like Pink Floyd and Albert Ayler. In Sonic Boom the up-tempo jazz and bittersweet nostalgia work as a rhythmic ode to the imagination. Vandekeybus: "The show is a success when every spectator comes home with a story of his own."

In each and every press notice or announcement of the show it was mentioned that David Eugene Edwards of 16 Horsepower had supplied the music. All that publicity could be titled misleading when all it boiled down to was that Simon (Sonic Boom's disc jockey - Sonic Boom is the name of the night radio station mentioned earlier) played Flutter and Hutterite Mile. Hardly songs that were especially composed by Edwards (according to the Folklore credits they are 16hp compositions) for Sonic Boom. Flutter's ending sounded remixed, but that was the only thing slightly new. Two short instrumental pieces sounded a bit Woven Handy, but it's up to the trainspotters to decide if it really was music from Edwards' hands.

Besides 16 Horsepower, Pink Floyd and Albert Ayler, Simon also played tracks by Calexico and Sparklehorse. So it could just as well have been advertised that Pink Floyd or Sparklehorse had provided the music for Sonic Boom. If you're a 16hp (and all things related) fanatic going to Sonic Boom expecting to hear new compositions from Edwards you will be very disappointed.

If you're going for the theatre and the dancing, will you be disappointed then? Well not according to the two newspapers cited. But you will according to us. But perhaps we're philistines :-) If people falling down hard from chairs and tables again and again, people spitting each other in the face repeatedly, people hitting each other hard on the chest and in the belly, someone cutting himself with a broken beer bottle - Simon commands the dancers to engage in these activities - well, if that is your thing, make a dash for Sonic Boom at mach 1.

Watching it we - rather alienated - could not help thinking of the Dogma film "The Idiots". Or an episode of Jackass without a sense of humour and self-mockery. That self-ridicule plus the obvious fun Johnny Knoxville and his cohorts are having makes Jackass entertaining and bearable for five minutes. But when it is presented as seriously and profound (or is that pseudo-depth?) as in Sonic Boom it is pathetic and pitiful. And perhaps were very blasé but when Simon orders people to take out their dicks or to undress it also seems very passé. Is this still meant to shock people? Shock the hicks with dicks? We couldn't come up with a suitable rhyming word to provincials :-) It all felt rather nineteensixties and -seventies.

But hey, its not all complaints round here. In one scene the dancers were very impressive. Seemingly effortlessly and with great dexterity they "caught" falling colleagues with their bodies. In that scene smooth fluid movements and power were combined skilfully. And the ironic-riverdancing scene did have its droll moments. And we won't complain about the acting too. Because most of the time two of the tree actors lay still and motionless on the floor, covered with ashes. But without sackcloth :-) The nameless Ultima Vez Dancer who played Simon, though not referred to as one of the actors here because he's not from the Toneelgroep Amsterdam theatrical company, actually was the best actor. He played his role with gusto and his character was the most convincing and believable one.

So if you want to believe the papers, go and have a wonderful time. If you want to believe us: don't go and have that wonderful time somewhere else. And if you do decide to go, that loud sonic boom marks the end. After it had sounded it remained awfully quiet very long. People probably had to make their minds up whether they would applaud or not. Out of courtesy and complying with the theatre etiquette a meagre applause finally did follow.

1 star (out of 5)