Magical Exploding Boy
Chicago Physical Theater
Writer: Dean Evans
recommended by Cara Francis
Magical Exploding Boy, a brilliant man-child with powers of creation and destruction, will absolutely destroy you.
If the Magical Exploding Boy in Dean Evans' one-man clown and mime performance of the same name were suddenly unleashed upon New York City 300 times his natural size, we citizens would cower spellbound as grey buildings curled back from the sky and microscopic creatures floating in spasmic dance landed on our faces like perfectly rounded drops of acid rain.
Evans, who has studied with Marcel Marceau, worked with Second City and is an ensemble member of the Neo-Futurists, captivates attention like one 300 times his natural size and collapses into dance with an ethereal, compact grace. You are in the tiniest space possible being thrilled by the biggest things. Evans' body and face are live wires leading directly from his inspiration to his audience. The show is a wordless tiptoe through the rooms of his imagination, best described through metaphor or with resolutions.
Example: As we were standing up to leave the theater, an audience member a few seats over in the same row said to me "It makes me want to lock myself in my room and work."
I nodded in agreement, but never mind the discipline. I was left wanting to lock myself in my room and dream.