FULL SPEED AHEAD

Pony Cam turns burnout, chaos,
and cardio into delirious theater

Dominic Weintraub, Claire Bird, Hugo Williams, William Strom

Are you, perhaps, missing the wild energy of Blue Man Group at the Astor Place Theatre? Good news: it has been replaced with something just as unconventional. Welcome Burnout Paradise, the theatrical event that turns endurance, chaos, and comedy into live performance. Created and performed by the Australian collective Pony Cam, this bizarre show mirrors the troupe’s philosophy: a collective brain at work with no script, no single star, and plenty of equally shared absurdity.

William Strom and Dominic WeintraubDominic Weintraub, Ava Campbell and Claire Bird

Four performers — Claire Bird, Dominic Weintraub, William Strom, and Hugo Williams — mount four treadmills and attempt an increasingly implausible set of tasks while running. Each treadmill bears a sign assigning it a theme: one is devoted to survival (cooking), another to administration, a third to work (performing), and the last to leisure. Leisure, as it turns out, includes shaving, waxing, taking selfies, shooting hoops, working out, and many other pastimes, suggesting that even relaxation requires a to-do list. The performers have some help because the piece depends on a mischievous interplay between performers and audience; the night I went, more than ten people popped out of their seats without hesitation, eager to join the madness.

Hugo Williams

From the beginning, Ava Campbell, the MC and factotum, explains how the performance works, picks the volunteers, keeps the score, delivers Gatorade, and a lot more. Once the running begins, the performers dutifully tick off the evening’s promises and never stop, displaying a level of cardiovascular commitment seldom required in the theater. Each member of the cast brings their own brand of chaos: Bird is terrific when she mimics her dance recitals from the time she was a little girl to when she was a teenager; Weintraub is side-splitting when he takes off his shorts mid-run; Strom is the best at multi-tasking; and Williams excels in deadpan comedy.

 Claire Bird

Scenic and video design by Jim Findlay (with Pony Cam) is as bizarre as the performance itself; the set is a corporate-absurdist “living laboratory” that satirizes modern productivity through a chaotic, DIY aesthetic, while Dans Maree Sheehan’s lighting is intentionally clinical, using harsh, cool-toned whites and sometimes the blue glow of the screen to strip away theatrical warmth. Sound design by Cody Spencer is minimal but it frames the performance with perfect auditory cues that highlight its comic futility.

The Pony Cam Collective

Burnout Paradise is certainly not a gimmick; it is playful and inventive, certainly worth seeing, yet its very chaos keeps it from achieving a fully cohesive theatrical experience. The action is relentless and overlapping, leaving the audience scrambling to follow, and maybe that’s precisely the point of the show. But if you are looking for a mindless, game-like performance that is guaranteed to make you laugh, don’t think twice, this is Paradise.

Dominic Weintraub

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photos by Austin Ruffer

Burnout Paradise
Astor Place Theatre, 434Lafayette Street
75 minutes with no intermission
ends on June 28, 2026
for tickets, visit Ticketmaster or Burnout Paradise

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