For a show that aims to refocus our eyes on the natural world, this is a mark of success. She calls so much attention to the animals dance-like movement, in fact, that I became fixated on her chrysalis co-star, not even noticing when Burkhart changed shirts. In front of a film of a caterpillar converting to a chrysalis, and then of a chrysalis opening to a butterfly, Burkhart does the same side-to-side flexion as the metamorphosing animal uses to accomplish its ragged miracle. She slides through a bucket of dirt, making patterns reminiscent of a sand painting, while her recorded voice chants definitions of dirt and soil that reveal our general distaste for the substance from which we come and into which we must go. During a voiceover of the Top 100 Things to Do to Prepare for Peak Oilalternately depressing (buy several pairs of good work-boots) and uplifting (advice on doing what you want for a living)≻urkhart tapes together a newsprint sail, an object with a utilitarian look but no clear purpose. The smooth site-specific movement improvisations shes doing on the film echo earlier live-action slitherings across a black leather lazy-boy, and are, themselves, echoed by the live Burkhart on the barren stage.

Later, her dancing body fades in and out as the rocky scene behind her stays the same. On film, Burkhart tramps around on the North Shore, showing us snakes and broken ferns, but she also shows us the welter of bug bites her nature trip earns her. This yields lots of strong and sometimes lovely moments. Instead, she sets up resonances between film and live action, between human and animal, between one place and another, that carry her message of interconnectedness. Burkharts version doesnt feature glossy, gorgeous footage of the strange habits of weird animals in exotic places, explained in disembodied voiceover. When she was a kid, Burkhart wanted to be a nature host (a la Marty Stouffer of Wild America), and in The Survival Pages, she succeeds in hosting a new kind of nature program. Malia Burkharts The Survival Pages is essentially a public service announcement rethink your relationship to the environment, etc but that doesnt prevent it from being a good Fringe show any more than the social purpose of a mural blunts its graphic impact.

Rock Star! by Amy Schmidt