To grasp Redmoon Theater’s large-scale outdoor spectacle, “Sink.Sank.Sunk . . . ,” it’s important to understand that the company’s members shun common sense, snub their noses at the laws of gravity and don’t believe that the best way from point A to point B is a straight line.
They chose Ping Tom Memorial Park in Chinatown to launch their new annual open-air series. The park — which was built on a former railroad yard bordered by the South Branch of the Chicago River, tracks for freight and passenger trains and two vintage bridges — inspired the show’s leit motif, which is a tribute to early 20th Century transportation and the industrial ingenuity of the time period that allowed people to travel more freely.
The show’s co-directors, Jim Lasko and Frank Maugeri, came up with iconic characters representing the era. Designers pitched in and put together a hodge-podge of recycled materials and found objects to create large-scale human-powered contraptions, engineered with a touch of mechanical wizardry, that would take the characters on their journeys in search of love and a place to call home.
When performers were introduced to their oversize vehicles, some traded with each other and others added accessories, and a story line and physical action began to emerge.
Lasko compares Redmoon’s collaborative creative process to the old-fashioned game of telephone in which a message is whispered from player to player and comes out unrecognizable at the end.
“At Redmoon, ideas start in one place and come back completely transformed,” Lasko says. “I feel like I sit in the middle and watch the ideas blossom.”
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“Sink.Sank.Sunk . . . “
6 p.m. Thursday-Sunday, Ping Tom Memorial Park, 300 W. 19th St., free; 312-850-8440.
