Upon first hearing of Bread and Puppet Theater, one might imagine some sort of whole-grain-centric marionette fiasco. But after watching a performance produced by the company, it became apparent that the actors achieved a perfect balance of slap-stick entertainment and political satire.
On Wednesday, March 31, the “Bread and Puppet Theater” company performed their play “The Dirty Cheap Money Cabaret” in the Shoolroy Theatre in Freedlander.
James Levin, director of the Center for Entrepreneurship, has a strong relationship and a long history with the company and helped coordinate bringing their traveling show to the† campus. “They happened to be in Cleveland two weeks ago and I met two of the actors who will be performing in the Ingenuity Festival,” says Levin.
The company told Levin “that they were touring and performing in Columbus and they had a gap in their schedule.” Levin stated that he invited the company to perform at the College.
Though the company usually charges a significant fee to perform, they agreed on a lower performance fee according to Levin.
The theatre company, officially titled “Bread and Puppet: Cheap Art and Political Theater in Vermont” was formed in 1962 in the lower east side of New York City by Peter Schumann.
Today, the company is located on a farm in Glover, Vt., and is also the home to their Bread and Puppet Museum which boasts a huge collection of puppets from their past performance seasons.
To gain attention and interest in the performance, five members of the company paraded across the College campus to attract students to the show, with a live band and life-sized, over the top puppet structures. The parade led followers to the Shoolroy Theatre, where members of Bread and Puppet company quickly led the audience to their seats and began the show.
“The Dirty Cheap Money Cabaret” consisted of performances of various skits such “A President and A Chair,” “Theatre Blue” and “Jolly Battle between Mountaintop Removal Protesters and Mountaintop Machinery.” During specific moments of the production, an actor impersonating Karl Marx teased audience members about the wonderful and deceptive ideas about money. The play was basically designed as a sketch-comedy show with satire embedded throughout the performance. The ensemble also demonstrated great musicianship with a brass band and well harmonized impromptu singing group.
My favorite moment from the production was the last scene titled “The Singing Turkeys.” It was hard not to laugh when two of the actors dressed minimally to resemble turkeys, pecked some audience members in the front row.
But what made this scene truly special was when the curtain lifted to reveal a tall, black turkey that quickly moved forward and revealed itself as a man in a black evening dress wearing red high heels.
The performer then sang his heart out to the other turkeys, which was welcomed by a thunderous applause from the audience. According to Levin, the work of the theatre company “exudes a kind of joyfulness … even if people did not ëget’ each scene or how the sketches work together, the audience clearly left the performance buoyed somehow. The work appeared to connect with a general human spirit and those that came certainly left elevated.”
After the performance, the ensemble members set up a booth for more information about the Bread and Puppet Theater Company, a selection of “cheap” art for sale, and served to patrons free bread with aioli (garlic sauce).
Levin added that the company labels their performances as cheap art because part of their fundamental beliefs is that “art is for the people… They normally go where they are sponsored, either by a city, presenting organization, progressive individuals or college, and do not charge a ticket price.” For more information on the company, you can visit their Web site at www.breadandpuppet.org