RAT Blood From A Turnip: Review 1/19

["Adam" <kafclown@well.com>]

I just saw this show last night in Providence-- Great stuff all around.

For those of you not familiar, it's a late night puppet salon where
puppeteers bring in short new works and perform it with musical
interludes...

Tonight it was:

Vaness Gilbert of Providence in a play called NO HEAT uses matchboxes, match
sticks, a red napkin, and a gold lighter to tell a Russian Babi-yar story.
Beautifully and simply done, with some great object manipulation and a
(pardon the pun) striking ending.

Liz Joyce of Long Island doing a hilarious "Goldilocks and the Three Bears--
how it really was"  It's a toy/theatre/ marionnete style play with a picture
frame stage carved out of an old suitcase.  The sets even spin around. The
bears sprout Brooklynese, and the accents and characterizations were very
funny.  The puppets are also very beautifully done...

and finally

Jim Napolitano of New Haven doing three shadow pieces -- a very funny
"Little Bunny Foofoo" (with audience participation), A lampshade on the head
version of the Stinky Cheese Man, and an old mother Hubbard story.
Masterful manipulations of the shadow puppets, and great and immediate
storytelling.

In between a local folkie music band (The Hatfield-McCoy Trio) provided fun
musical interludes.

This was a great night of puppetry-- and further enhanced by the fact that
PBS was there filming for a future documentary on the puppetry experience!
And for $5-- how can you go wrong?

Their next evening is March 16.  And the Puppet Showplace theatre in Boston
is hosting The Boston Puppet Slam on Feb. 10.  So check it out if you get a
chance!