I am a big fan of puppets and marionettes. To me, they just personify theatrical magic. I've been fortunate to see many wonderful productions featuring marionettes in my theatrical lifetime - some of my favorites were companies from China and Italy - I've even seen a Kabuki production using puppets! I just love them. So, when I saw that Theater for the New City would be presenting a show featuring marionettes from Czechoslovakia, I was in! Truth be told, after working with the National Theatre of Czechoslovakia in the late 1980s, I was doubly in! I should've known that my level of excitement could only lead to disappointment...
Because I'm me, I got so excited about the Czech part of the marionette company (and the mention of klezmer music!), I didn't notice the '-American' part in their troupe name. So, I'm thinking my handsome chum and I got a little bit of a watered down version of this puppet theater. The company has been around for quite a long time, but I hadn't heard of them before. I had read some of their background material and I probably should've also paid more attention to the line "...conceives each character as a double - live performer and puppet - with inner dialogues being revealed amid several levels of subtext." Um, ok. I'm guessing that particular part of their company aesthetic didn't penetrate my brain, because when the doubling happened, I was unprepared. But I didn't see several layers of subtext. What I saw was a troupe of not-great actors, speaking not-great text as if they were doing a college level improv piece, and not nearly enough puppet magic. But I guess I had too many pre-show stars in my eyes to prepare myself for the problems.
There were six or seven rows in the theater, but there was no onstage platform for the action featuring the puppets. Therefore, much of the action was completely hidden from people in the back few rows (which, of course, included us). Even if I wasn't completely enthralled with what they were doing, I still would've liked to have seen it. I had read the scenario beforehand, but, the text itself was so meandering and non-specific, there was really no way to connect to anything. And I found myself really unhappy with the actor/ marionette doubling technique. I just didn't think wrapping a marionette around your neck while you made out with another actor illuminated the text in any way. Perhaps that was just me.
There were a few magical moments, when the marionettes took center stage, but they were few and far between. It was a looooooooooooooooooong 90 minutes, and if there hadn't been live klezmer music, the evening would've seemed much longer and much more boring. As it was, I wasn't nearly as enchanted as I wanted to be, and occasionally, I was a bit ticked off. Again, I guess that's partly my fault for not having done as much research as I could've. But, hello, whatever happened to just going to a show and experiencing it IN THAT MOMENT?! I guess for $10, it could've been much worse. After all, I did get to have drinks, and then post-show ice cream, with a handsome chum, which is worth much more than $10. I will just put this experience out of my mind and go back to remembering the Quanzhou Marionette Theater and that monkey puppet riding the bike...
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