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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2010 > April > 30 > Entry
Fusebox 2010: Review of ‘Under Polaris’
‘Under Polaris,’ the multi-media romp by LA-based creative collective Cloud Eye Control now at Salvage Vanguard Theater as part of the Fusebox Festival, may not be especially deep. But the hour-long rock opera cum live video animation is fun to watch.
The story charts the trail of female scientist who has distilled the perfect seed — the seed to the Tree of Life which preserves all earthly creation. And to preserve that seed she embarks on a trip to the North Pole where presumably it can be frozen, a hedge against apocalyptic destruction.
That’s a bit a self-serious. But nothing else about ‘Under Polaris’ really is. In fact, that pseudo cautionary tale — and epic tale that goes nowhere — just seems like a framework on which the creative collaborators pin their multi-media antics.
Three musicians keep a charging soundtrack going as Anna Oxygen, playing the scientist (and the piece’s chief composer), sings moody rock arias as she journeys north, encountering a bear, a caribou and a musk ox, each animal played out as large-sized, clever shadow puppetry.
Perhaps most beguiling about “Under Polaris” is the combination of computer-generated visuals and animation writ that are on rumpus room theatricals. Miwa Matreyek’s video animations effect oceans and iceberg filled polar-scapes all while projected on simple scrims and curtains. Images of giant icicles and even the scientist’s canoe are projected onto simply cutout forms craft store signboard that manually slipped on and offstage by the stage crew.
“Under Polaris” is digital media meets do-it-yourself theater with a live rock score — it’s just minus the meaningful meaning.
The show repeats tonight and Saturday at 7 p.m. See www.fuseboxfestival.com.
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