Reviewed by CHRIS GRAEME
A STAGE covered in a mass of tangled aluminium pipes is bathed in an eerie red glow. Slowly the pipes begin to inflate with air and writhe around the floor before menacingly flowing off the stage and reaching out into the audience like the tentacles of a mythical space-age kraken.
Sounds like a scene straight out of Doctor Who, but it is in fact a highly amusing and audience-friendly show from Israel using…well, aluminium foil!
The pipes, which resemble slinkies, are actually light, plastic, flexible tubes covered in silver foil, which, with clever lighting, air and half a dozen dancers take on a playful life of their own.
The Aluminum Show, which opened at Lisbon Casino on March 18, is a clever concept choreography using aluminium silver foil and industrial-sounding music to ingenious and original effect.
Lark around
This show is audience participative in that, at various intervals, the audience themselves can lark around with giant air filled aluminium bags. They can also drag the tubes over their heads to the rows behind, or reach into the air and try to catch pieces of aluminium foil floating down from above, after having been shot into the auditorium from air canons.
And the aluminium pipes of various sizes take on a character all of their own. Like squirrels or minks, they scurry playfully up and down walls, poke out from holes and even dance to the tango, Charleston or Saturday Night Fever.
They take on the guise of lumbering monsters or giant puppets which reach into the audience and stroke the heads of laughing theatre-goers.
Aluminum is a performance combining movement, dance and visual theatre techniques with special effects, clever lighting, creative mechanisms and acrobatic dance, turning inanimate objects into characters full of vitality, emotion and even personality. The result is a rich and dazzling show, shiny and reflective, modern and ground-breaking, which puts the audience in centre stage.
What: The Aluminum Show
Where: Lisbon Casino, Parque das Nações
When: daily Tuesday-Saturday, 10pm – runs until April 6
Tickets: 30-35 euros
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