‘Stomp’ Pounding Pleasure Until The Very End

“Stomp” Tuesday, Dec. 8, Spokane Opera House

Who would have guessed that eight people banging on garbage cans could be so entertaining?

“Stomp” is two hours of pure visceral pleasure, a simple and almost primitive tribal rite of pure rhythm.

No words are spoken, beyond an occasional exuberant shout, and no true instruments are played, not even an actual drum. Nothing happens at all, except that people pound on the floor, on the set, on various household items and even on themselves, creating percussive rhythms that seem to connect straight to the rhythms of our hearts.

“Stomp” works amazingly well as theater for two reasons. The first is sheer variety. Half the fun is trying to figure out what outlandish “instrument” they’ll march on stage with next. I thought they were going to pound on everything but the kitchen sink, at which point they began to pound on kitchen sinks. They had actual kitchen sinks suspended around their necks with chains, and they proceeded to bang on them, throw water from them, and make rhythmic little dish washing sounds with them.

I assumed that this was the ultimate in bizarre instrumentation, or at least I thought so for about five seconds until they walked on stage with - plumber’s helpers. That’s right, plungers, which make comical and expressive music when pulled off the floor with a pop. Here’s something that I’ll bet never occurred to most of us before: If you use different sized plungers in a precise pattern, and you can achieve a sound like a Moog synthesizer.

And even that wasn’t the most bizarre instrument. My pick would have to be Zippo lighters. Between popping the lid and popping the flint, these talented performers had a pretty good chick-scratch-chick rhythm going, but the most impressive effect was visual. They performed it in a blackout, with the sudden sparks from the Zippos providing a mini-fireworks show.

The other segments included push brooms, matchbooks, hands, sand, dustpans, rubber pipes, mops, sticks, plastic bins, walls, newspapers, boxes, barrels and, for the finale, galvanized trash cans. Everybody I talked to had a different favorite. One loved the barrels, which the performers wore like giant tap shoes. One loved the wall-of-sound, in which performers strapped themselves into climbing harnesses and swung back and forth on a scaffolding, banging on various signs, hubcaps and bits of junk. Others were partial to the sticks, which were wielded more like spears or fighting staffs, and which made music out of combat. I was partial to the rubber tubes, which, when banged on the floor in precise patterns, sounded like something dreamed up by Stravinsky.

The other reason “Stomp” works so well theatrically is that this activity is done with utmost showmanship. Each performer has a kind of character, although an unspoken one. Some are subtle and some are obvious, such as the character assumed by Danielle Reddick. She was the clown, always put-upon by the others. After a while, all she had to do was walk out on the stage and she would get laughs.

All eight performers play directly to the audience, sometime engaging us in clap-alongs, sometimes just engaging our sympathy. This is an outgrowth of “Stomp’s” roots as street theater, in which the performers had to connect with the spectators immediately, or risk them walking away.

“Stomp” is, in essence, simple street entertainment with a big budget. Even now, when “Stomp” has become a Broadway franchise, it retains all of the charm and all of the simplicity of its beginnings. No way would anyone want to walk away from this little street show.