Review
THE BIG ROCK SHOW
Monster Theatre
Created and performed by Jeff Gladstone, Ryan Gladstone and Bruce Horak
Runs until January 29
Lunchbox Theatre
(Bow Valley Square)
Who has time for history, let alone the entire history of the world? From the genesis fires of the Big Bang to thousands of years of dead white men, it’s a lot to take in.
For Monster Theatre’s The Big Rock Show, just opened at Lunchbox Theatre, global history is condensed into a succinct hour, offering a chronicle of the world’s ups and downs in the time it takes to finish a bagged lunch.
Beginning with a snappy musical introduction, followed by a momentous countdown to the Big Bang, the show launches with the energy of a compressed universe complete with song, dance and a gaggle of cellular puns, taking us "back when every cell was single." From there, the three-member ensemble leads the audience through billions of years of evolution and thousands of years of human culture under the watchful eye of the ultimate stage manager: Death himself.
There is a frantic, sincere energy driving The Big Rock Show, carrying its audience along from the final death rattle of a foam dinosaur to the ominous laughter of a gigantic Grim Reaper puppet. With extremely minimal sets and costuming, the history of an entire planet is driven at lightning pace by the comic timing of Monster Theatre’s three creators-performers: Jeff Gladstone, Ryan Gladstone and Bruce Horak.
Darting from behind the map of the world that serves as the production’s primary set piece, the members of Monster Theatre jump from global children playing with their new gods (limited edition Yaweh: there’s only one), to Socratic philosophers (keg-partying frat boys interested in logic as a means to seduce women), to dismayed historical narrators following the seemingly inevitable patterns of human error. "If history has taught us anything…" begins Jeff Gladstone, to the collective reply of, "And it hasn’t."
There’s no denying the showmanship of musical numbers such as "Frenchman Like Me," which sees Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Maximilien Robespierre and Napoleon Bonaparte taking can-can kicks with cabaret flair and a charming vaudeville waggle. And then there are infectious songs featuring everything from the evolution of language families to Genghis Khan’s near-tearful appeal to a world that just doesn’t like Mongols. Monster Theatre’s production is a carnival of the canonical that gets its audience clapping along as it makes fun of our confused, comic world.
Frenetic, hilarious and insightful, this production takes a stab at the greatest questions in human history and finds them to be perfect comedic fodder. Repeating their earlier success with last year’s The Canada Show, a one-hour Canadian history, the minds behind Monster Theatre have truly mastered the art of compressed history, armed only with matching coveralls and a world to change behind.
If you see only one global history this year, make it The Big Rock Show. |
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