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SF
Bay Guardian
October 2002
The industrial backdrop of SOMA nightspot the DNA Lounge is the ideal setting for Avatars, an engulfing theatrical expedition into the beeping soul of the video game by San Francisco-based performance group Capacitor. Mixing a booming electronic score, swooping lights, clublike visuals, and salacious costumes with a cocktail of live performance styles from capoeira and classical ballet to juggling and acrobatics, Avatars depicts the realm of the video game as the final frontier of heroism – a world where players can outdo their everyday potential at the click of a button. The experience, is similarly captivating for the audience. Following 40 minutes' preamble, in which a white jumpsuit-clad cyberpunkette performs a solo and the game's five "characters" – fire, earth, water, wood, and metal – engage in orgiastic bouts of visually beautiful if thematically overlabored dance, Avatars resoundingly comes into its own. The second half, with its razor-sharp combat sequences, which expertly integrate live action with video-projected motion capture, makes us want to jump into the game. (Chloe Veltman)
