Stomp!

Who has seen Stomp might fantasize over a janitor job! Sweeping floors, tapping brooms, and drumming garbage cans has never been so entertaining! It is incredible what sounds can come out of a concerted and choreographed house cleaning job!

The 100-minutes performance of only 8 people was an animated communication between audience and performers with not a single word uttered. It struck me how the audience of a sold-out Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) responded to the claps and rhythms of a single man on stage. Synchronized! Very interesting, looking at it from a communications angle.

The group surely did their homework in localizing the show. The audience cracked up laughing when one of the guys came on stage with a Baguio broom! For non-Filipinos: a Baguio broom has a short handle (makes you bend over all the time) and a very soft brush. He tapped the broom a few times, of course a futile attempt to get a sound out of it, then left the stage artificially disappointed. Great!

I had seen Stomp in Boston more than ten years ago. I remember my fascination back then and I felt the same way this time! Simply amazing!