LA Weekly review of HYPERBOLE: epiphany

Adam S. Aug 17

LA Weekly reviewed HYPERBOLE: epiphany in the August 18 issue. Here's the review:

Martin Hernandez

[link to review on LA Weekly]

Utilizing puppetry, masks, digital video and animation, movement and original music, these 18 quirky vignettes abound in youthful humor and experimentation. Co-directed by Sean T. Cawelti, Kristine Aubert, Barbara Kallir, Miles Taber and Adam Simon, the show, however, mostly trips on its own precocity. When focusing on character and story development, as in "The Mysterious Adventures of Johnny Crumb" (a tale about an angst-ridden adolescent), the results are enchanting.

Read the rest of the review after the jump.

But Cawelti’s mask and puppet work often overshadows the narrative, such as the tedious "Pablo’s Perspective," in which two actors alternate masks to different parts of their bodies. Still, the cast (Mauri Bernstein, Linda Borini, Misha Bouvion, Christopher Cole, Matthew Hilliard, Beth Hinderliter, Michelle Ingkavet, Eric La Barr, Kirsten Long, Ben Maughan and Cari Turley) is truly dedicated to its varied roles, especially the bemused trio of the appropriately titled "The Senseless." And Cawelti’s puppets and masks are ingenious and elaborately detailed, such as the singing sandwich of "Sammitch," the trio of bungling bank robbers in the whimsical "The Trap," the horrific spider of "The Wild Abyss" and the office drones of "Disruptions," whose depersonalization is epitomized by "hamsters" running on wheels planted on the actors’ stomachs.

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