ROBIN’S SHOW RECOMMENDATION: MUMMENSCHANZ

MUMMENSCHANZ has captivated audiences worldwide, and now the renowned Swiss performance troupe is presenting a special holiday engagement for four weeks at NYU Skirball Center in New York City.  Recommended for ages 6 and up, the show is a full two-hour program (with intermission), which consists of nearly 30 sketches – featuring playful colorful creatures that have rarely been performed in the USA and Canada, as well as many of their most popular fantastical characters and perennial fan favorites.  It’s easy to see why they’ve been going strong since being founded in 1972.  There is no other show like it, and your family will indeed enjoy. This is mime and more, taken to an original, new level.

The mask theater company creates a playful and uniquely memorable experience through an inventive use of forms, shadow and light and creative manipulation of sculptural, expressive masks. The result is a visually stunning spectacle of family entertainment that sparks the imagination and transcends cultural barriers. Performed in silence and often on a darkened stage, in the comic, wordless universe of MUMMENSCHANZ, the ordinary becomes extraordinary when common materials and everyday objects–such as wires, tubes, boxes, and even toilet paper–all spring to life as fantastical characters.

I saw it with my 9 year old son and friends, and it was a treat.  It was inventive and surprisingly interactive with the viewer. Whether engaging the audience in a game of catch or inviting them to use masking tape to design features on a cube faced performer dressed sleekly in black, you wanted to be involved and part of their whimsical world.  Their spirit and creativity, not to mention flexibility, was contagious.  And, talk about thinking out of the box….to them, a box took on new artistic meaning. And, the performers (all four of them) are not youngsters.  They are agile, seasoned veterans, and one member of the team took to the stage (sans costume) after the show, to answer questions and share a bit about the origin of MUMMENSCHANZ.

It is playing  through January 6th at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, 566 LaGuardia Place (at Washington Square South) in NYC.  Visit .  To order tickets, visit http://www.mummenschanznyc.com. 

To become a Facebook fan, join at facebook.com/mummenschanz. Click on youtube.com/mummenschanztour  to watch live performance videos. Follow the company’s featured artists on Twitter: twitter.com/mummenschanz.

Tags: family entertainment