Surfing, and sky diving on a Panama stage

 By Dafydd Young
IF YOU MISSED out on the original 1991 iconic “Point Break” action movie directed by Kathryn Bigelow and starring Keanu Reeves , don’t despair. It’s back  “live” in Panama.

The Theatre Guild of Ancon (TGA) has created a rollicking fast moving stage performance send up of the movie under the title “Point Break Live Panama.”

Point Break has become a cult movie around the world, and if you are one of its followers you will know the plot by heart. But, for the deprived this is how it goes:

A rookie FBI agent, Johnny Utah (Keanu Reaves in the movie) and his veteran partner attempt touncover a gang of bank robbers known as the Ex-presidents who carry out their raids wearing masks of Ronald Reagen, Richard Nixon, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Jimmy Carter.
The criminals are actually surfers who raid only the cash draws of banks and are in and out in 90 seconds. Their motivation is not about money but “against the system”. Life for them is surfing the big waves.
Johnny, who knows nothing about surfing infiltrates “The presidents” and from there it’s action plus, plus.
How do you get surfing and sky diving on the stage of the TGA? And how do you convey a street chase across Panama from Amador through Casco Viejo, to the Cinta Costera while literally moving the audience out of their seats? That’s for you to find out and you will have a lot of laughs on the way.
But wait. How do you manage all of this when the “star performer” is missing? The answer is simple. You dive into the audience and do a quick audition and lo, you have a rookie actor playing a rookie FBI agent.
Knowing no lines? Not to worry. The dynamic Melanie Gilpin, skilled in acting. teaching and directing is on hand with prompts, shoves and lots of entanglement and more laughter-rousing scenes for the audience.
If you fancy your chances in the limelight, you have to be able to read English, but of course if you couldn’t you wouldn’t be reading Newsroom. When the final scenes are played with lots of shoot-em-up action other questions pop up. How many bullets does it take to polish off dead-but-not down Papas, brilliantly played by HB Twohy?, and where do those super energetic surfers get their stamina?
The audience in involved in ways you will never have seen before. I even emerged “blood” stained, but that’s another story.
The play is stunningly directed and produced by: Giancarlo Benedetti and Rob Getman and created by: Jaime Keeling .The multi-talented cast is: Adrian Benedetti, Rob Getman, Marco Sarria, Jose Miguel Navarro, Melanie Gilpin Lee,
HB Twohy. Monica Porras,Val Monique, Ana Gabriela Martinez and Tony Loew.
Together they have added another jewel ito the 62-year-old crown of the TGA.
For $15 (plus whatever you like to spend while hob-knobbing at my favorite patio bar) it’s the best buy of the month.
Performances run June 20 to 22, and 27 to 29.