Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Melancholic puppetry: Justin Perkins’ UNICORN AFTERLIFE & Ralph B. Peña’s VANCOUVER

• By drediman
• May 7, 2021
• No Comments

This week, I took in a pair of puppet theater works – one in-person, the other via on-demand streaming. It’s been a while since I’ve engaged in the art of puppetry, and I was reminded all over again of how exquisitely theatrical and emotionally potent the genre could be. Read on for my thoughts.

VANCOUVER
Ma-Yi Studios / Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival
On-demand through May 31

First we have Ma-Yi Studio (Ma-Yi Theater Company’s streaming platform) and Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival’s theater/film hybrid Vancouver (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), which I streamed on-demand earlier this week. Set in the Pacific Northwest, Ralph B. Peña’s puppet play tells the aching story of a mixed-race (Japanese/Caucasian) family in the process of disintegration. Created by puppet/theater artists during the pandemic in a remote barn in Wisconsin, the project has clearly benefited from the time, freedom, and care afforded by working in such a secluded environment. Indeed, Vancouver is a quiet stunner – theatrically, cinematically, stylistically (the polished artistry of the physical puppets themselves deserves considerable applause) – and it emphatically defies the notion that puppet theater is meant only for kids. Vancouver is a very adult show, objectively gazing at sobering issues such as mental health, marital strife, alcoholism, racism, sexual identity/abuse, and bullying without passing judgment or offering easy so. As such, Mr. Peña’s concise, truthfully-voiced production never comes across as didactic, which is a relative rarity these days. Admittedly, much of Vancouver is difficult to sit through because of its emotional rawness and unflinching honesty – especially in the wake of the #stopasianhate movement – but it’s hard to look away when sadness, rage, and the mundane are navigated with such grace and clear-eyed beauty.

UNICORN AFTERLIFE
Dixon Place
In-person and live-streaming through May 8

The Lower East Side’s Dixon Place has joined the growing number of venues presenting socially distanced in-person performances (with an option for live-streaming) with its current production of Justin Perkins’ Unicorn Afterlife (RECOMMENDED), which I attended last night. With “unicorn” in the title, you’d expect sunshine and goodness to permeate the piece, which the production’s overarching whimsical tone suggests would be the case. But as the puppet play unfolds, you eventually realize that not all is as it seems in this ultimately subversive parable. In fact, the show is downright heartbreaking when taken in totality. You see, what starts off as a spirited celebration of the titular magical creature takes a turn when, in the afterlife, they’re given the opportunity to reassess their time on Earth. In the three short vignettes that follow – all of which come to unexpected, grim endings – the unicorn is faced with the fact that beyond being impractical and ineffectual, the very concept of the “unicorn” has been the cause of much pain and suffering. Disillusioned and resigned, the creature (or its idea?) fades away. The production’s shaggy aesthetic champions retro, synth-driven fabulousness, which is in stark contrast to the carefully calibrated, meticulous execution of Vancouver.