The Washington Post
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Thursday, September 5, 2002
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Juggle Wine, a Loaf of Bread, & Wow
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Flying Karamazovs & Their Comic Flares
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By William Triplett
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Oh, those Flying Karamazov Brothers! Just try to keep a straight face when they perform!
Do they actually fly? Of course not. But I'll tell you what does fly when all four of them are onstage: meat cleavers, sickles, chunks of dry ice, champagne bottles, fish, ukuleles, eggs, flaming torches, frying pans, salt shakers and more bad puns that you can count. ("The word 'music' comes from the Latin moosick, meaning ill cow.") The Karamazovs, who just opened their new show, "Catch," for a brief run at the Kennedy Center, are postmodern jugglers who draw as much from circus clowns and the Marx Brothers as they might from Letterman or Leno, and they can tickle your brain while thrilling your eyes.
"Catch" is actually a sort of greatest-hits collection from the Brothers' 20-plus years of performing their highly theatrical brand of antic juggling. Bits from previous shows like "Juggle and Hyde" and "The Flying Karamazov Brothers Do the Impossible" flow together; the program starts with what appear to be fairly simple routines and gets more difficult as the evening goes on. As the complexity of the routines increases, the fictional brothers (Paul Magid, Howard Jay Patterson, Mark Ettinger and Roderick Kimball) joke with the audience as well as with each other -- particularly if one of the objects they're tossing about hits the floor.
In a complicated routine, five of 12 flying bowling pins suddenly crash with a clatter. Long pause as the Brothers continue juggling the rest. One finally says: "I don't think anybody noticed that. I'll pick them up." Later, in another tough bit, a couple of pins fall. Without missing a beat a Brother picks them up and, with a high toss, puts them back into play while deadpanning, "Remember, it doesn't matter how you get there when you don't know where you're going."
It's like watching a crack theater troupe blow a line, threatening to derail the show, only to recover with more panache and wit than you would've gotten from perfect execution. But when they pull off their routines -- as they almost always do, especially in a brilliant finale featuring possibly some of the most bizarre objects ever to be juggled -- the effect is dazzling.
The only real thud of the evening is the performance space. "Catch" is in the Atrium, essentially a large connecting corridor between two ballroom-size chambers on the Kennedy Center's top floor.
The soaring marble walls have dreadful acoustics, occasionally making the Karamazovs inaudible.
Still, the infectiousness of "Catch" and its performers comes through easily. In fact, talent like the Karamazovs' really can't be kept from flying.
Catch, by the Flying Karamazov Brothers. Directed by the Flying Karamazov Brothers with Carys Kresny. Lighting, A.J. Epstein; set, Michael Neubauer; costumes, Susan Hilferty. Approximately one hour. Through Sept. 15 in the Atrium at the Kennedy Center. Call 202-467-4600.
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