Halloween Night Stomp

“STOMP” left us speechless and wanting more. . .

by Jenn Carr, Roving Pittsburgher Reporter

                                                                    

What a great way to spend a cold, rainy evening in Pittsburgh…in fact, what an awesome way to spend any type of evening.  My 12 year old son and I saw the production of STOMP.  We went to the show with the expectation that we were about to see a lot of drumming and banging on stuff.  

Immensely entertaining!! We were intrigued, amused, and downright flabbergasted by the entire performance.

The show starts so quietly with a lone, spiky-haired, muscular man pushing a broom, in a spotlight.  The man begins a tapping out a rhythm with the broom, his feet scratching and tapping along the stage floor.  Slowly he is joined by other members of the troupe, pushing brooms, scratching the floor, flipping brooms upside down to rhythmically tap the floor. It becomes a choreographed chaos of movement across the full stage.  You don’t know where to watch first. Performers cross in front of each other as they hand off their broom to another person. It was watching a very complex juggling act.

A parade of fantastical situations are brought to the stage from kitchen sinks, inner tubes, scaffolding, and a fantastic cigarette lighter sequence.

From off-stage 4 guys walk out carrying what looks like a drum kit.  However, it turns be out to be different size stainless steel kitchen sinks hanging from chains around their necks. It is hard to even imagine how kitchen sinks, rubber gloves and water can become a composition of rhythm and musicality. 

As the lights come up, the performers are bouncing in synch on large, truck inner tubes.  The squeak of the rubber against the floor is the foundation for this next composition.  Then, they start drumming on the tube and reaching across to tap sticks with their performing neighbors.  Unbelievably inventive!!

As if we were not already in awe at the creativity of the show, the complete cast lines up in the dark across the front of the stage.  Soon we realize, in each hand, they are holding old-fashioned cigarette lighters.  Click and swish, we understand the display and music will be created as they flick open the lids, spin the lighter wheel, ignite a flame and slam the lid closed.  However, the audience starts to understand the visual sequencing as flames appear and disappear in syncopation with the rhythm

The normal person does not look at brown paper bags, tire rims and rubber piping and imagine a concerto.  The skills of the performers and the talent of the producers shine brilliantly from beginning to end.

You walk out of the concert hall with a better appreciation for ordinary, even mundane pieces of our everyday can bring music to life.  The only bad point of the whole evening is walking out of the concert hall with a 12 year old boy tapping and banging on everything in arm’s reach.


Jenn Carr, “Your Credit Mechanic”
                                                                                                      
“Let us help you get back on the road to better credit”