Theater Review: It's Past Time We Appreciated Bike Play As Theater

"Bike Play is one of the city's unsung artistic cuties. Since its start in 2009, the Bike Summer/Pedalpalooza ride has drawn healthy crowds to its annual one or two weekend runs, filling parks and lesser-known neighborhood green spaces with playfulness, charm, and cyclist humor. The production flies under the radar of most cultural criticism. It's been written about almost exclusively by Bike Portland's Jonathan Maus for being part of the city's cycling culture."

"But isn't Bike Play theater? And shouldn't we critique it? Merriam-Webster defines-I'm joking! Of course Bike Play is theater, especially if you think of short comedy skits as meeting the criteria. Bike Play is actually a very old kind of theater, the outdoors kind. And it contends with some of the most enduring puzzles of the form: How to be loud, and how to make movements that can be recognized at a distance."

"As with anything that's been going on for 17 years, the troupe contains a mix of longstanding players and fresh faces. It began as a project of the Working Theatre Collective, now defunct outside of Bike Play. After the first three productions, founder Noah Martin moved out of Portland, and the show's producer Noelle Eaton became its longest-running constant. In mid-July the troupe staged its 16th iteration, Up Shift Creek, which followed a Magnolia-esque arc through several separate camping groups-each with their own dramatic circumstances-who"

Bike Play began in 2009 as a summer Pedalpalooza ride that stages family-friendly outdoor theatrical performances during one or two weekend runs, filling parks and neighborhood green spaces with playfulness, charm, and cyclist humor. Mainstream cultural criticism largely overlooks the production, with most attention coming from local cycling coverage. The form functions as outdoor theater, facing challenges of audibility and legible movement at distance. The troupe mixes longtime performers and newcomers, originated with the Working Theatre Collective, and settled under producer Noelle Eaton. Recent Up Shift Creek staged interconnected camping-group skits, synchronized dances, musical numbers, and an eventual fight with a shark.

Read at Portland Mercury