Theatre review: Brave

The performers of STREB: Brave displayed just how brave they are in their performances Friday and Saturday night in Memorial Hall.

Not even belly flopping onto a stack of mats from 25 feet in the air posed an obstacle.

The performers astounded audiences with their creative mix of aggressive aerobatics, extreme sports and dance.

Brave

Streb
Friday
Arts verdict: 4.5 of 5 stars

 

The “extreme action heroes,” as creator Elizabeth Streb refers to her eight performers, pushed the limits of the human body.They flew into the air and landed on their stomachs to produce a thump that sounded alarmingly like bodies slamming onto planks of wood. Performers called this “slam dancing,” and the noises emitted after each landing were a part of the music accompanying the elements.

An announcer mixed music and narrated the different acts so that there was not a moment without entertainment. He introduced the show by insisting that the audience interact with the performers. The audience complied by filling the two-hour performance with cheering, clapping, laughing and occasionally gasping at impressive tricks.

Every thrilling act revolved around an unconventional prop, such as swinging cinder blocks or a clear plastic wall. The audience cringed as the performers slammed their bodies into the plastic wall or dove in front of the cinder blocks and barely missed them before hitting the ground.

The audience experienced a mixture of awe and terror, wanting to cover their eyes but also unable to blink for fear of missing a second.

 

In “Squirm,” seven of the performers laid on top of one another in a small box as the eighth member squirmed through them to get to the top and nearly lost his shorts along the way. Once he reached the top, he did a swan dive back in and squirmed through to the bottom once again.

 

The performance included technology with Streb herself bringing out a miniature robot that did the worm, headstands and a number of other acrobatic tricks.

 

The final and most thrilling act employed “The Whizzing Gizmo.” This contraption can only be described as an oversized, rotating ice-cream cone.

The performers ran in it, ran on it, leapt, flipped and performed various other gravity-defying tricks until the “gizmo” catapulted them into the air and onto a stack of mats.

The only drawback to the show was not being able to hear the performers’ narration, which was done without microphones. Even in the smaller venue of Memorial Hall, it was difficult for those in the back of the theater to hear what they were saying.

Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.