Animal Magnetism
Bob Hicks, The Oregonian, December 6, 2006

The oddest things happen at Imago.

Polar bears come crashing off the stage, waddling into the aisles and cozying into people's laps.

An anteater goes to a restaurant and, when he can't get the waiter's attention, starts to lick up the delicious ants on the floor.

Three raccoons in prison stripes make a daring jailbreak.

A couple of fat-lipped creatures that look like Jabba the Hut gulp down everything - and everyone - in sight.

And a Saturday night audience, including hordes of children, keeps the laughter rolling from beginning to end.

"Biglittlethings," which opened Saturday at Imago Theatre, is the home for this unlikely menagerie of anthropomorphic creatures, which range from shimmering snakes to disembodied dancing bug-eyes to strange humanoids that bop each other over the head wit h framed sheets of butcher paper and transform into beautifully whirling tops.

It's the latest addition to a holiday season of shows that's taking some intriguing flights of fancy away from strict Christmas tradition. Except for a hilarious spoof on "The Nutcracker," DoJump!'s vibrant holiday show captures the season's spirit witho ut any of its trimmings. At Lakewood Theatre, "Vitriol and Violets" bypasses the sugarplums in favor of the brittle wit of the fabled Algonquin Round Table. Theatre Vertigo ignores the season entirely, getting deeply, disturbingly political with Tony Kush ner's fiery warning "A Bright Room Called Day." Even the engaging new "Christmas Revels" at the Scottish Rite Theatre is as much a celebration of pagan winter solstice traditions as of their Christian overlay.

For Imago, this newest version of "Biglittlethings" is also a prelude to the first national tour of a show it hopes will become a companion to its internationally popular "Frogz." "Biglittlethings" hits the road next month for stops in California, Idaho, New Mexico, Texas, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and New Jersey.

What began 2 1/2 years ago as something very different has become more and more like "Frogz." The first workshop production of "Biglittlethings" included extended dance sequences; creators Carol Triffle and Jerry Mouawad hoped it would suggest Cirque de Soleil and choreographer Alwin Nikolais' multimedia illusions, in addition to Imago's own blend of movement and fantastic costumery.

The current version has dropped some sketches from last December's premier and added four new pieces. Although not quite as fine-edged as "Frogz," which has been refining itself for a good 20 years, it feels very much like "Frogz II" - a show in the same spirit, with the same sort of illusions, even if the particulars are different. One of the new pieces, "Raccoons," actually premiered in April in a production of "Frogz," underlining the interchangeability of the two shows.

Like "Frogz," "Biglittlethings" inhabits that seductive twilight zone between the literal and the purely imaginative, transporting its audience to a place where all the creatures take on human traits and the humans act much like animals. It's a world dee ply suggestive of the whimsies of children's picture books, and like the best of kids' lit, it also hints deftly at the mysteries of adult life. Why do those two hippos keep fighting for space on the big bed instead of simply sharing the covers? What lure s the big fish to its downfall? Why do we court danger and long for safety at the same time?

At its best, "Biglittlethings" projects a civilized knowingness that even children intuit to be true. We are all creatures of nature, responding to stimuli from a place deeper than our bones. What's crucial isn't so much whether we'll respond - we will - but how we'll respond. It's an Americanized version of a more nuanced European sensibility, which springs from Triffle and Mouawad's ties to the great French mime and teacher Jacques LeCoq.

Of the new pieces, the furtively funny "Raccoons" is the clear winner. "Duck Dance," which mimics teenage courting rituals, is a good idea, but still a little hectic; some crisp editing should snap it into place. The absurdly engaging "Alphabet Boy" borr ows a shtick from the Cowboy's segment of "Frogz," with a lone performer cranking his own head to unveil a moving-picture reel. And "Big Gulp" (that's the Jabba the Hut scene) has the chance to be hilarious, but it needs a little sharpening to reach its p otential.

Katie Griesar's carney-like music once again moves the action deftly. The unsung heroes moving inside those fascinating costumes are Jeff Simmons, Rex Jantze, Kyle Delamarter, Philip Cuomo, Kerry Silva and Emily Gleason. Luckily they're at home in the wi ld - and the strange.