Burnout Paradise

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Burnout Paradise is the most unique show in New York right now and enormous fun. A sort of athletic performance piece, it is also an interactive four-ring circus competition. Four members from the Australian theater collective Pony Cam perform on treadmills in four sets of 12-minute sessions each while performing set tasks and have to beat their own previous record while completing all the tasks. Genial hostess Ava Campbell explains the rules, keeps time, sells merchandise and serves Gatorade to lucky theatergoers. If the performers do not beat their previous record, audience members can request their money back. However, the show is so much fun that you will have had your money’s worth by the end no matter what the final score. In any case, the performers do collectively run about 17 miles before the evening is over.

However, it is definitely an interactive experience and could not be performed without audience participation. As the four actors (Claire Bird, William Strom, Dominic Weintraub and Hugo Williams) are confined to their respective treadmills during their parallel sessions, members of the audience are requested to go up to the stage and hand them items they cannot reach on their own or help in completing some of the various tasks. With the clock ticking to finish all of the tasks by the end, the tension rises and more and more theatergoers go on stage in quicker numbers.

The four treadmills are labeled with their assigned tasks and the actors switch off after each session of 12 minutes, after hydrating and exercising during the short breaks. Which one is more difficult is anyone’s guess. On the audience’s far right, in Survival, the performer while on the treadmill is required to help cook a three-course meal (garlic bread, soup and pasta) on hot plates for two lucky audience members who are shown up to a red and white checkered table and chairs in an alcove above the stage before the show begins. This includes pouring boiling water while running as well as stirring a pot of tomato sauce. The second task called Admin is completing a grants application by the end of the show. For this, audience members are asked to email in various components as well as make choices. The third one, the most imaginative, is called Performance and the actor has to entertain with a song, a dance, a monologue, or an act of some sort while running backwards.

The most elaborate of the four is Leisure in which the four performers collectively must complete about 30 common tasks listed on a whiteboard while audience members bring him or her items from a cabinet on the wall. Between the four sessions, the Pony Cam members must do all the tasks on the board which are erased as each one is completed. These include shave, eat an apple, shoot hoops, brush teeth, sink a cold one, put on a clay mask, workout, wax hair, etc. And when you think they are finished, it turns out there are more on the reverse side of the whiteboard!

The performers all of whom are charming have very different personalities while engaging in their tasks. Williams is cheerful and exuberant throughout as though he is having the time of his life. His Performance contribution is declaiming Hamlet’s “To Be or Not To Be” over and over again during the 12-minute session. Weintraub seems perturbed throughout as how to make the most of the time allotted. His unbelievable Performance feat is attempting to put on a swimsuit and sneakers while running. Bird seems flustered and her Performance art is recreating a ballet that she did a child but now running backwards on the treadmill. Strom remains intense and serious throughout all of his sessions on the treadmill. His Performance act is to play a keyboard and sing while running. If you wonder how the cast can keep this up for the scheduled four month run of the show, there are two alternates, Carl Bryant and Chan Lin, who occasionally alternate for the others.

As the audience will have different views from their seats at the Astor Place Theatre (home for 33 years to Blue Man Group), there are monitors placed strategically around the theater for better viewing. Obviously, the people sitting up close have a better shot at getting onto the stage to volunteer but the narrow theater does have a central aisle for easy access. As the time runs out and the tension rises, the pressure can be felt around the theater by all assembled. Accounting of scores is made at the end of each round and totaled at the end. It is impossible to not get caught up in the action and root for the performers to achieve their goals. This may not be the next form of theater but you have probably not seen anything like this except possibly contests at a state fair – but this is New York!

The Pony Cam Collective

No Guarantees Productions & Parrot Ox Productions

Astor Place Theatre, 438 Lafayette Street, between Astor Place and Lafayette Sreet, in Manhattan

For tickets, visit http://www.ticketmaster.com/burnout-paradise-tickets/artist/405189

Running time: 80 minutes without an intermission