Review of Look Out Below! at Round House Theatre
December 7, 2009
Review by Marcy Gessel

4545 East-West Highway
Bethesda, MD 20814
240.644.1100
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Look Out Below! at Round House Theatre is a welcome respite from the usual fare aimed at children. There is no preaching about the need to embrace differences. No hip references to pop culture. No bad guys. Instead, the talented actors of Happenstance Theater, which developed the show for Round House, entertain with lovely fluid movements, hilarious slapstick and traditional music.

A 5-year-old Our Kids reviewer sat straight up in his seat with his eyes wide. He doubled up in laughter many times and participated when the audience was invited to sing and clap. Two adults and 11- and 9-year-old boys also enjoyed the show.

The loose plot takes place late in the 19th century. Pierrot is on his way to Paris to make the very first recorded sound. En route he meets Augustine, a would-be Hot Air Balloonist. Once in Paris, they encounter the Circus, the Paris Metro, the Eiffel Tower and the Moulin Rouge. The fun includes moonlight, a thunderstorm and a very silly run-in with a large bass drum.

The set is spare, with a mostly plain backdrop and a ladder located at center stage. A few props are brought in during the show.

In Look Out Below!, the special effects are the amazing team of Mark Jaster and Sabrina Mandell, who perform mime, sing, manipulate cutouts of themselves, and, in Jaster’s case, play the French folk song Au Clair de la Lune on the bowed saw. When Jaster places a horse head cutout on his head and starts to move his legs as if in a circus horse act, the movements seem to expand beyond just the suggestion of a horse. Later in the show, Mandell amazes by performing a trapeze act.

They are joined by Karen Hansen, who plays Max Calliope, the one-person band. Among her many instruments, Hansen produces a double-belled trumpet and plays while one bell is muted and another is not.

For regular fans of Jaster and Mandell, who are local favorites, the performance will probably appear to be more of the same great stuff. But for those who have never experienced their particular blend of vaudeville, clowning, mime and such, it is a revelation.

What they loved
The physical humor had the boys in stitches. At various times the action moved from the live characters to their paper cutout counterparts, producing a very funny effect. The guys were impressed that so much was happening with relatively little dialogue and few props.

What they didn’t
A particular gripe of one of the adult reviewers was the noise created by the youngest children. Although the show is performed for all ages, parents should consider leaving at home children at the babbling stage, or moving them outside to the lobby. Because the performance is often so quiet, the chattering toddlers in the house became distracting.

Before you get there
If you get to the theater early enough, make sure to visit the display providing backgrounds of the Pierrot and Auguste clown characters and the Parisian locales in the production. Spending a few moments doing so at the theater or in front of the computer at home would help children envision the real images that the production merely suggests.

Bottom line
Funny, pretty and refreshingly different, Look Out Below! is a special treat for the holidays. The show lasts about one hour and has no intermission.

Performances
The show continues December 11 to 13 and 18 to 20. Performances are at 7 p.m. on Fridays, 1 and 5 p.m. on Saturdays and 1 p.m. on Sundays. Tickets cost $15 for adults and $10 for children aged 18 and under.

Later this season
Round House Theatre will produce another family-friendly production, Around the World in 80 Days, in May.

Have you seen Look Out Below!? If you have comments and would like to share with the Our Kids readers, email Our Kids.