Evolution

The Brick Theater

575 Metropolitan Ave

Presented by En Garde Artists

Directed by Alexandra Hastings

Fight Directed by David Dean Hastings

 

Review by Christina Ku

 

When you watch a “violence ballet” consisting of 11 fight scenes, 68 weapons, 23 fighters and 90 percent badass, you’re bound to see something that’s going to put a bit of hair on your chest. This is Evolution, part of the Brick Theater’s “Fight Fest,” a three-week program dedicated to exploring dangerous theater in an ode to stage combat. 

 

Highly comical, tightly choreographed and clean cut, Evolution is a short and sweet production that quickly sweeps you through the “badassery” and weaponry throughout history, and punches you right in the gut. The well-synced, talented cast of 23 is aptly trained and more than capable, and the audience members don’t flinch, despite the sharp, pointed objects stabbing and jabbing in front of their faces. 

 

Both David and Alexandra Hastings avoid the common problem of fight scenes — a mumble jumble of tangled limbs and sweaty grunts that can be hard to decipher and follow — by making excellent use of slow motion and choreography. This is especially apparent in Evolution’s segment on fencing, the American Revolution and the Old West, where our fine actors display incredible skill and muscle control. 

 

Evolution’s display of technical and choreographic skill, while strong throughout, takes it up a notch with a slow-mo reel of form sequences during the fencing scene, and then continues to flex its muscle. Rather than a hurried helter-skelter rendition of an American Revolution battle, Hastings instead has the battleground muted and the actors fighting and dying in slow-mo. Even better is the complete, analytical run down of “The Anatomy of a Gun Fight,” where a narrator walks us through shot by shot (literally) of each bullet fired during a deadly shooting between the Earps and the Clantons, before letting it all rip loose. 

 

Seamless and tightly knit, Evolution can’t be separated or dissected for one particular fight sequence that outshines the others. Perhaps the show’s only shortcoming is its grave omission of the greatest weapon of all — the lightsaber.