Hephaestus Theater Review

Four Stars

Looking something like a mélange of the specialty acts (i.e., the good parts) of Cirque du Soleil’s Banana Shpeel and the non-annoying aspects of Blue Man Group and Stomp—oh, plus some glancing references to Greek mythology—Hernandez’s circus-theater piece returns for its third Chicago engagement since debuting in 2005. Amped up with new and expanded acts for this run in the Goodman’s Owen space, it’s far more exhilarating than the sum of those parts has any right to be.

Hephaestus, for the uninitiated, was according to lore a son of Zeus’s wife Hera whom she literally cast from Mount Olympus, crippling him in the process; he became god of the forge, the only deity readmitted to Olympus after exile. But really, you don’t need to know that. Hernandez provides just enough bits of mythology to perhaps spark further investigation by young audience members and some clever in-jokes for adults. (Love goddess Aphrodite is a contortionist? Of course she is.)

Hephaestus’s minimal plot, like the dazzling work by set and lighting designer Brian Sidney Bembridge, is just in support of the astounding circus-arts talent on display. New additions include the Anastasini brothers, ninth-gen circus performers, whose “Risley” act—think a teenage boy foot-juggling his preteen brother—wins the crowd like crazy. And the Owen gives the performers a higher ceiling than Lookingglass’s space and a closer proximity to the audience, making possible a new seven-person-pyramid high-wire climax that, if it fails, will have acrobats falling onto audience members. If we’ve forgotten by that point what any of this has to do with the Greek gods, so what? Our breath is taken nonetheless.