The Aluminum Show at Edison April 30

International sensation The Aluminum Show comes to Edison Theatre April 30. Download hires image.

Pliable, durable and lightweight, aluminum is the most abundant metal in the earth’s crust, used to make everything from soda cans to airplane wings to electrical transmission lines.

Yet even this most versatile of elements is put to the test by The Aluminum Show, an international sensation that combines dance, puppetry, acrobatics and special effects to breathe new life into recycled industrial materials.

Aluminum is puffed into pillows, shot out of cannons, sewn into costumes, wrapped around audience members and transformed into living creatures of astonishing warmth and complexity.

On April 30, The Aluminum Show will make its St. Louis debut as part of the Edison Ovations Series at Washington University.

The special, one-night-only performance will begin at 8 p.m. Saturday, April 30. Tickets are $35; $30 seniors; $25 for Washington University faculty and staff; and $20 for students and children.

Tickets are available at the Edison Box Office and through all MetroTix outlets. Edison Theatre is located in the Mallinckrodt Center, 6445 Forsyth Blvd.

For more information, call (314) 935-6543 or email edison@wustl.edu.

The Aluminum Show

The Aluminum Show. Download hires image.

Like a space-age mix of Stomp and Blue Man Group, The Aluminum Show is a visually arresting spectacle filled with unique choreography, avant-garde lighting, pulsating electronic music and ingenious sets and costumes constructed entirely from the title substance.

The show dates back to 2002, when Israeli dancer Ilan Azriel and his wife, Ella Munk-Azriel — cofounders of Dollbeat Productions Ltd. — began developing a theatrical evening that would personify industrial materials while enabling direct interaction between audience and performers.

Hunting through factories and technical supply stores, Ilan compiled stacks of piping, flashing, sheet metal and other aluminum materials. Then, with special effects expert Yuval Kedem, he began experimenting with different techniques for bringing those objects to life.

The result, which debuted at the Israel Festival in 2003, consists of 20 short, largely wordless segments that together tell the story of a young, slinky-like machine determined to reunite with its distraught metallic parents.

As it travels through a luminous futuristic world, this whimsical protagonist encounters a series of sparkling tableaus: a chorus of harmonized metal hoses; a fashion show in which models are draped in head-to-toe metal tubing; a glittering factory at which dancing workers construct a gigantic metal man.

“Like the metal itself, the energetic, impressively coordinated performers seem lightweight and malleable,” notes The Independent of London. “The Aluminum Show does everything you can possibly imagine with its star element,” adds TheatreMania, while the BBC calls The Aluminum Show, “silver foil spectacular.”

Since its premiere, The Aluminum Show has toured throughout Europe, the Middle East and North and South America. The current U.S. tour — the troupe’s third — is visiting 40 venues in 29 states. For more information, visit aluminum-show.com.

Edison Ovations Series

Founded in 1973, the Edison Ovations Series serves both Washington University and the St. Louis community by providing the highest caliber national and international artists in music, dance and theater, performing new works as well as innovative interpretations of classical material not otherwise seen in St. Louis.

Edison Theatre programs are made possible with support from the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency; the Regional Arts Commission, St. Louis; and private contributors. The Ovations season is supported by The Mid-America Arts Alliance with generous underwriting by the National Endowment for the Arts and foundations, corporations and individuals throughout Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas.