Chicago Children's Theatre - | Chicago Tribune January 22, 2007

Chicago Tribune January 22, 2007

Amsterdam's ISH goes 4 skating nirvana

By Chris Jones

In one of the few lines intended for adults in "4-Ish"—the non-stop, break-dancing, hip-hop, extreme-sports, in-line skating extravaganza now at the Harris Theatre — the exuberant young Dutch performers make a little dig at the lack of universal health care in this country.

You can understand their worries. With a Dutch DJ spinning furiously at the rear, champion skaters Sven Boekhorst and Tio Eerhart race and tumble up and down the steep-incline contraption plopped down on the Harris Theatre stage with heart-stopping agility and speed. For a 10-year-old in the house, one imagines, this must be something close to nirvana.

A lot of parents take their kids to the theater with an almost pathological fear that the little critters will be bored — and thus disruptive to those around them. Your offspring might not be moved to deeply ponder the human condition at "4-Ish," but rest assured they won't be bored. Not even for a second.

Because the name of the group, ISH, reveals, like, nothing, know that the 70-minute show you're buying here is probably best described as a combination of "Stomp," "Noise/Funk," "The Def Poetry Jam" and the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus — with the mostly American street-culture influences leavened with a touch of that trendy Euro-aesthetic (i.e. everything is performed with a just a little ironic distance).

The overall arc of the show involves a dreadlocked, clownlike figure (played by artistic director Marco Gerris) getting sort of overwhelmed by all the speed, verve and technology surrounding him. That part of the show is probably the least successful — mostly because performers don't reach out enough emotionally to grab this large a house in the gut. Vulnerability is not a collective strong suit. And you might well have seen richer explorations of the hip-hop aesthetic — not much in the way of poetic flights of rhythm and language here.

But when this thing takes to its wheels, "4-Ish" is really something. Even the most devoted skate-park obsessive won't have seen skating like this behind a proscenium arch. And the lead breakdancers — the limber, powerful duo of Sebastiaan Ramirez and Raphael Hillebrand — are also exceptionally skilled and creative. Video — especially an exciting top-down view of DJ Irie Weergang Bove in action — greatly enhances the immediacy of the experience.

For the fledgling Chicago Children's Theatre, here's a useful chance to bring big, diverse audiences into the fold. With a top price of only $25, this show is far cheaper than the moodier, Broadway-type spectacles that show up from time to time elsewhere in the Loop. "4-Ish" doesn't have comparable production values or unifying ideas, perhaps, but it sure has the performers, the skills and the youthful spirit.

And, thank God, there are enough silly sounds produced (and delightedly consumed) that the kids in the house aren't asked to be prematurely all grown up.