Extra News January 22, 2007

4-ISH Review

By Alan Bresloff

Sometimes, theater is not theater, but a theatrical experience. These are not story's or even concerts, but in fact spectacles just meant to be viewed and enjoyed. Shows like "Stomp" and "Blue Man Group" come to mind and now thanks to the Chicago Children's Theatre, Chicago has an opportunity to share one of these experiences.

"4-ISH" is the work of the Amsterdam based troupe known as ISH, a solid group of daredevils with enough enthusiasm and energy to get an audience "high" on the experience of going to a live performance. A combination of world class roller skaters, featuring Chris Frank and Lotte Lammers and highlighted by the powerful Sven Broekhorst and Tio Eerhart will astound you and the break dancing skills of Sebastiaan Ramirez and Raphael Hillebrand are mind boggling. There are acrobatic feats (Micka Karlsson defies gravity).

What we have in this 71 minutes is a little stomp, a lot of roller skating (one bit is in the dark with lights on the skates) a DJ ( Irie Weergang Bove) and the amazing vocal abilities of Thor Vandenbossche.

Artistic Director Marco Gerris has made this a very exciting show for audiences of any age and any background- there are some marvelous competitions and the use of videos and lighting effects by Mike den Ottolander make this heart pounding production well worth the trip to the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Millennium Park well worthwhile. The group's name comes from the suffix " ish" which is used when their is no definite description of something ( such as he is 30ish, she is tallish).

This is pure family fun (and fun even if you don't have a family) "4-ISH" is only here through the 28th, so get your skates on and get on down to the Harris.

Performances are as follows: Thursday the 25th at 3:30 p.m. Friday the 26th at 7:30 p.m. Saturday the 27th at 2 and 6 p.m. Sunday the 28th at 1:00 p.m. * and 3:30 p.m.

Tickets are only $15- $25 (a true value for a production of this magnitude) and are available by calling the box office at 312-334-7777 or online at www.chicagochildrenstheatre.org

Check out the next two productions as well

April 13-May 26th "Go,Dog,Go!" ( this will be in a circus type tent in Grant Park)

July 20th- August 26th "Honus and Me" at The Goodman Theatre