AVALANCH RANCH
But perhaps because Magnus wrote the script in collaboration with Shu Shubat, his usual excesses are absent. The story’s weird, but the use of bodily organs is kept to a minimum. Shubat, a musician and movement artist, brings with her a sense of logic and dynamics. The combination of their two artistic forces–Shubat also directs–makes for an intriguing and challenging evening of performance.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Presented as a “drum opera,” Avalanch Ranch features at its core a handful of musical numbers with spectacular drumming and choreography. The drumming itself is powerful–rhythmic and mind-boggling. Drumsticks fly from holsters like guns drawn at dawn. The players whirl them like batons, toss them in the air, play the tops and sides of the drums. All the while, the band Family Problem chugs out a powerful accompaniment that can vary from the hard-driving “Brain Spill” to Shubat’s torchy “Mother of Sorrow.” The drums are made to look like cows (trust me), and the players move around them in a precision dance that can suggest love, fighting, uncertainty, carcass carving (honest), an assembly line, and even an alien ship landing.
Shubat also moves with confidence and style, whether dancing around the drums or Rollerblading as the moon, but that’s nothing new. A mainstay with the performance/drum groups Tarantula Moon and Long Bone, Shubat has performed to critical acclaim around town in dance and performance showcases for years. The delight in Avalanch Ranch is discovering that she can act. Though she had to hold her own against three very distinctive and energetic males, Shubat turned in quite a show: she was stylish, vulnerable, and wide-ranging. Considering that her presence is considerably softer than the men’s, it’s to her credit that she never gets overwhelmed.
