A Place of Many Rivers combines music, interpretive dance and spoken word to deliver the gospel of hope and new life.  With an overload of inspirational clichés, you’re in for a sermon in variety show format.  Songwriter Michelle Zerbin delivers easy listening about longing and belonging, pain and deliverance.  A prophetic voice reads out Biblical paraphrases of comfort and hope that left me cold: I felt like this message of love and peace was being shouted at me.  Modern dance fills out the artistic trilogy with depictions of sorrow, wonder and joy.  The show depicts a continuous journey from hopelessness to redemption but lacks artistic unity and was abstract in its presentation.  There were some touching moments, and the cast may become more comfortable with themselves as the festival progresses.

Two out of five stars.