2024 Audience Reviews

Company: Funk Haus Theater
Show: Interstella 5555: A Daft Punk Discovery
Venue: Barbara Barker Center for Dance

STELLA-R

Few audience-goers will be familiar with the 2001 anime musical film "Interstella 5555", a companion piece to Daft Punk's 'Discovery' album, but I cannot stress enough how little that should deter you from attending. You! Yes, you! New producer Shayla Courteau is also the choreographer of 50 minutes of non-stop snappy dance pieces that fold into one another, giving the performers and audience no room to relax in their seats. The plot is evident and elegant, the costumes are beautiful, the set is so minimal it might as well not exist, and the talent on stage just oozes into the audience. It might have been the audience feet beating the beat of the music into the risers at the Barker Center for Dance, (home to the UMN's dance program - from which some of the performers hail) but I felt absolutely electric all the way through. I think that a lot of folks in the theater world know the too-rare feeling that occurs when you see a performance that really makes you believe in the beauty of the arts, and Interstella hit that bullseye at a TEN PM OPENING NIGHT. Support young talent and fresh new ideas, and do NOT miss this one.