In a gladiatorial race against time, four performers on moving treadmills perform an escalating series of tasks. Burnout Paradise is a hilariously cathartic caricature of a painfully familiar experience: running oneself ragged trying to get everything done. In Burnout Paradise, Pony Cam welcomes audiences with a simple wager: Can the four performers meet a dizzying array of challenges while collectively running 20km on treadmills before their time runs out? If they fail—and, they often do—they offer the audience their money back.
At the performance I attended, they did manage to get all of it done in record time, but even if they had failed, I wouldn’t expect any money back. For 65 minutes their “near burnout” is pure entertainment for the rest of us. It’s packed with suspense: will they succeed? There’s humor: just watch one of the guys attempt to change into a Speedo without embarrassing himself. There’s also a satisfying catharsis. And given the added option of having a drink at the bar before or after, “burnout”, at least when others are threatened with it, is “paradise” indeed.
Burnout Paradise is a fun and quick evening at the theatre, and at first glance it does not hold enough water for cultural commentary. But as the Pony Cam members rated their individual levels of burnout, I found myself more invested in their self-assessment than in my own burnout. It was funny: I sat in the audience with my notebook, trying not to think too hard about thinking about the show before me, as I often must.
2024 | Off-Broadway |
St. Ann's Off-Broadway Production Off-Broadway |
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