MAYUMANA

I don't usually go into a movie or a show without reading at least one review first. My dad's taught me better--if it's been panned, what's the point of paying for something that stinks? But time escaped me last week and I never got a moment to read up on MAYUMANA, the new show we saw on Friday at the Union Square Theatre.

So aside from knowing that two of the performers were once Israeli gymnasts, I had no idea of what to expect on Friday. Meaning not only did I lack expectations, but I lacked an inkling of what the whole show was even about. And I'm not sure I could tell you what the show was about now, after sitting through 90 straight minutes of this wacky, sometimes riventing, mostly awkward performance.

Conceived by Eylon Nuphar and Boaz Berman in Tel Aviv, MAYUMANA (from the Hebrew meaning skill) is descriped as "a purely theatrical event that combines elements from various art disciplines based on music, movement, acting, dance and rhythm." Movement and rhythm we got, but the show lacked music and real "acting" (rather, I'd call it miming). Not until the encore (in a unique twist, we got an extra 'number' after the show was apparently over) did we actually see a collective song and dance from the performers--and even that was somewhat bizarre. The rest of the show was a psychadelic mix of beatboxing, chest-slapping, drum-banging, and break-dancing in a style Mark deemed "Stomp meets the Blue Man Group".

That said, it was mostly entertaining. There were parts were I found myself staring puzzled at the stage wondering if the performers--in military-meets-tribal inspired costumes that could have been made in the early 90s--were transplanted from another planet. And the show was not technically sound (there were a few obvious onstage glitches). But overall I found MAYMANA fairly entertaining, even though it definitely could have been wrapped up in 60, not 90 minutes.

Thanks again to Leezie for the tix!