Flying monks, undersea oddity, more

Sanctuary. Monks sporting multicolored mohawks dance with fire, walk on water, and perform aerial acrobatics in the wildly imaginative, Cirque du Soleil-ish Sanctuary, performed by Brian Sanders' company, JUNK.

Using found objects, some built into Alex Gartelmann's sets, others assembled on the spot, the 10 dancers vault over one another onto tables, perform highly gymnastic duets in shadow, and slip-slide through a long trough of water.

Sara McCorriston's costumes include flowing white robes that allow three dancers to perform a sort of rhythmic gymnastics routine with poles and fabric.

The show, set to '80s tunes, has a shock factor, as dancers run in and out of confessionals; sway with religious fervor on an apparatus that serves both as choral risers - with rays of Terry Smith's lighting shot through - and a carnival-like ride; and baptize one another before performing a sensual dance.

It's 45 minutes of nonstop, exhilarating, wondering-what's-next action that often has dancers swinging from the rafters on twirling straps or balancing on hanging metal cubes.

Friday's opening performance was dotted with small balance errors and problems with the sets. But it set the bar very high for Live Arts/Fringe shows to come.

See it!

- Ellen Dunkel

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Chicken. For those of us who've always wondered just what they do for diversion in those confining submarines, theater artist Charlotte Ford offers a possibility: They spend their days one-upping one another, which organically leads to games of chicken.

So she offers - on a confined stage with a goofy mixture of '50s-style furnishings, gewgaws and radios and gauges, underwatery blue-lit walls (Thom Weaver's lighting), and thumping and whirring (James Sugg's sound) - the interior of a submarine, plus three characters with their own strange interiors.

Chicken is fun and often absurdly funny, laced with little plot surprises and tension that gives it a buzz, as if it's about to explode any second. It's also gross, in a strangely scintillating way; I'm not sharing any plot detail, because it would spoil the 70-minute ride. But think squid play. Pee jokes. Sexual angst.