The Balloon Man

I went yesterday, to Millenium Park to see the first of Red Moon Theatre's two scheduled spectacles this year, The Balloon Man. As most of Redmoon's works, they again have created another work that is whimsically bizarre. As it is described in their publicity pages, it is a rock and roll science spectacle that uses 300 pounds of helium, 20 feet of truck, 5 rock and roll musicians, and a mythical beast. The show begins with a small gold car driving out onto the great lawn with music blaring adn parking next to a performance announcement sign. "The Balloon Man Next performance: Some Minutes" . The Balloon Man exits his car, puts on a gold lame jacket, changes the performance time to 90 seconds, then 60, then 30, then realizes that there is no 0 seconds and presents himself to a hopeful audience applause. He runs around giving out a few balloon animals and then stops to count and realizes that he has far fewer balloons than he has children in the audience. After some thought he decides to draw a volunteer from the audience to help him blow balloons. As he is blowing his first balloon, he gets hit by a truck that is backing into the area where he was performing. This truck is manned by rock musicians scientists who are searching for a mythical creature called the picnob which has been floating around the fringes of the performance area. The scientists have a lot of scientific knowledge and sing songs that reminded me of They Might Be Giants. In the course of the show they drag the child into helping them and also The Balloon Man after it is determined that he is not dead. The scientists make several bad decisions on how to capture the picnob and then eventually capture something that is not the picnob. The show played for 5 performances this weekend and tomorrow and will do 3 more next weekend. It is a very good show that is fun for all ages .