Leni Sulusi

Strike are com­plet­ing their Down­stage Res­i­den­cy with a revis­it of Ele­men­tal. It’s a “per­cus­sive based the­atri­cal stage show” which is fun­ny, breath­tak­ing, and intri­cate. Mur­ray Hick­man, Tim Whit­ta, Leni Sulusi, and Taku­mi Motokawa, are joined by new­bie Tom Broome. Their team work is so good that it’s dif­fi­cult to tell that he’s new. The pieces they play include clas­sic instru­ments as well as the odd Strike-unique instru­ment. Brake drums, bits of car, straws, and bam­boo sticks make an appear­ance along with more fami­lar per­cus­sion instur­ments — drums, cym­bals, and the xylo­phone. (BTW, the tri­an­gle has nev­er looked so sexy.)

There are earplugs but leave them in their lit­tle paper bag if you can. I exper­i­ment­ed for the first few pieces and dis­cov­ered that they dead­en the edges of the sound. You’ll want to hear the res­o­nance in the notes, oth­er­wise it becomes a gen­er­al wave of noise with­out nuance or clar­i­ty.

Also — the Down­stage crew were cor­rect when they said the Strike guys are hot. (Appar­ent­ly it’s okay to notice — accord­ing to the con­ver­sa­tion I eaves­dropped on in the ladies. Thanks for the pic Down­stage!)

  • Strike: Ele­men­tal on at Down­stage to 20 August 2011.