SPANK!

Doug is a serious genius scientist, but we wouldn't know it to look at him on stage, where his and our underbellies are exposed with relish. Welcome to the theatrical production, SPANK!, a futuristic world of entheogen eye drops and dangerous laughter, where the key to enlightenment is hidden in our junk DNA, picking one's nose provides access to system control, and "thought is a measurable value" to be manipulated and commoditized as part of a giant addictive role playing game. Brainchild of playwright and director, Andy Thompson, himself a professed recovering online video game addict, SPANK! is much more than a foray into the world of addictive gaming. There is something tasty in this production for everyone.

With recognizable elements of Terry Gilliam's Brazil (with shiny ducts and revolutionaries akin to H. Tuttle), The Matrix (trapped in the machine), and Vanilla Sky (will he really die if he jumps off that ledge?), mixed in with genetic biology, burlesque, and comic existentialism (such as antagonist characters eerily reminiscent of Teletubbies gone bad with Dr. Seuss flair), SPANK! is a menagerie of modernity, with existential angst well mixed into the abusurdly hilarious. Philosophy aside, I want to know where I can get one of those pleather suits with the removable headgear in time for Halloween!

I wasn't sure what to expect when I was invited to this theatrical production, touted as the "first ever play to be custom-created for The Virtual Stage", a real multimedia menagerie. I suppose I was expecting a high brow avante garde production with its head stuck up somewhere I didn't care to go, but I was absolutely wrong. SPANK! is refreshing in plot and characterization in spite of borrowed themes. From Doug, our lonely hero, Isadora, our flaming haired rebel, Flower Vines, our virtual girlfriend to rotund but feisty tech support and a dominating red-faced beaurocrat, the cast of SPANK! shines and coordiates swimmingly with the prerecorded video and sound installations. With such theatrical elements, film and sound seamlessly interwoven, this production is indeed a multimedia one-of-a-kind experience that I would like to see more of. For instance, how many times do you get to see a computer generated virtual blonde gyspy schoolgirl in lilac lingerie actually crawl off of the screen and onto the floor?

The debut audience shared my enthusiasm for SPANK!, judging by the volume of laughs throughout and the applause at the end. More than "multimedia theatre", this is theatre for those who hate theatre, film for those who hate film, existentialism for those who love to navel gaze and fun for those who love fun. Attending is worth it at the very least to see hot bodies in skanky outfits with red knobs in questionable places, see the main character learn to fly and talk to "god", figure out why so many of the characters seem to have multiple personality disorders, and to laugh at the extreme closeups of the villains, whose power relies on maintaining their "administrative privileges".


Why not give SPANK! a try? You never know, you just might become addicted yourself.

SPANK! runs at the Roundhouse Performance Center in Yaletown from Oct 7-20, 2006.
Ticket Cost: $22.50-$26.50