Review: MUMMENSCHANZ in “RE: PLAY” at The New Victory Theater
Natalie Rine, Associate New York Critic
I am not the target demographic for The New Victory Theater. Nestled between screaming six-year-olds clawing for a booster seat from the overly sanguine ushers, I settled into what I was sure was going to be a cute puppet show. Instead, I fell into the world of Mummenschanz, a remarkably entertaining, dazzling world filled with larger-than-life visuals with no sound, walking the tightrope between performance art and child’s play that can only be the result of pure joy and imagination.
The Swiss theater troupe imbues all sixty minutes with charm and vivacity, keeping the audience enraptured through pure movements and physical, masked theater—no small feat when the audience in this instance is comprised of small children and families. And I mean they are purely visual; no music, no set, only objects, moving against a black background and using non-verbal communication. Known as the “Musicians of Silence,” Mummenschanz plays with outlandish masks and props, light and shadow, and subtle choreography to orchestrate about two dozen of their sketches into one amalgamation of fun for all ages where movement is the driver of action here, not words. The appeal to kids is in their personification of items with googly eyes and often breaking apart images and forms to construct new ones before our eyes, otherwise, surrealist moves that here play as an enticing, mesmerizing feature to keep kids’ attention. There is a sketch portraying a caterpillar attempting to find a leaf to eat, violins as faces trying to find harmony, and a frog that tries to find the elusive fly that plays as the only hilarious sound in the entire show. Five actors hidden in the dark create this fantastical world full of larger-than-life creatures, emotions, and visual poetry, and, even with some skits revealing their human bodies in black bodysuits, the illusion of the world is never broken, with the figures being both mysterious and other-worldly as we know yet somehow cannot believe the fantastical images they construct before us.
Surrounded by squealing and gasping kids, I found myself not turned off by their childish exclamations that filled the silence of the performers, but rather, encouraged to also gasp, “ooh” and “ahh” alongside them at the wonderment taking shape before my eyes. “RE: PLAY” encourages theatergoers of all ages to sit back and let our minds fill in the darkness alongside them, create stories and images, and believe in the power of visual storytelling. Mummenschanz’s “RE: PLAY” will leave you with a greater understanding and expansion of what is possible to convey without words; the audience’s rapturous applause breaks their silence.
RE: PLAY
Formed by founding members Andres Bossard, Floriana Frassetto and Bernie Schürch in 1972, MUMMENSCHANZ, from Altstätten, Switzerland, have pioneered contemporary mask theater. Floriana Frassetto is the Artistic Director / Creator, Marc Reinhardt is the Managing Director and Eric Sauge is the Technical Director. The cast of “RE: PLAY” includes Floriana Frassetto, Christa Barrett, Sara Francesca Hermann, Kevin Blaser and Oliver Pfulg. “RE: PLAY” has a running time of 60 minutes with no intermission and is recommended for ages 6 and up.
“RE: PLAY” runs at The New Victory Theater (209 W 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036) until December 1, 2019. Full-price tickets for “RE: PLAY” start at $17. Tickets are available online (http://www.newvictory.org/boxoffice) and by phone (646.223.3010). For more information, please visit newvictory.org
Photo Credit: MUMMENSCHANZ