Review: Burnout Paradise

Four treadmills are rarely necessary on a stage. With Burnout Paradise, theatre company Pony Cam take to these very crucial treadmills in a comedic, all-too-relatable commentary on modern life and just how impossibly exhausting it is. Resisting any definition – physical theatre, performance art, and bizarre workout would all be incorrect – it is utterly singular in its chaotic vision. Frantic and funny, Burnout Paradise leaves us with a somehow nicely sore head.

Divided into four sections, four performers switch between treadmills and sharply relevant activities while a host guides us through the taxing ordeal. Seemingly unafraid, the performers take each activity in their stride, encouraging the audience to assist with the many, many tasks. Despite all the fuss, we still enjoy a certain intimacy with the performers; their warm rapport with each other and childhood-based re-enactments are a delight to witness. Meanwhile, chaos ensues and Pony Cam simply allows it. 

No grand, heavy-handed statements are made: Burnout Paradise trusts us, the audience, to get it – after all, we’re burnout too. Rather, in its simplicity, the show brings everyone together in a somewhat sweetly-shared critique of daily life. Burnout Paradise forces us to grin, bear it, and enjoy it, in the best possible way.