Purple Dragon Puppet Theatre
(Can’t believe how many adjectives I used in this. I NEVER use adjectives. On the other hand, they are seldom so highly deserved). November 29/’08 at the first of the Saturday Puppet Shows in the Upper Canada Academy for Performing Arts in Kingston, Ontario at 260 Brock st (6130 542-9988. Wholly original and silky smooth is the Purple Dragon Puppet Theatre, a sophisticated professional production that deserves widespread praise. I could not believe we were seeing such a gem in a church hall though I was grateful to be seeing it at all. This particular show was called, Wandering Through Magic.
Guitar chords and soothing/amusing announcements from an unseen voice called Doug, kept a restive audience at bay while the hall filled and last minute bits were handled by the troupe. A twelve foot professorial purple dragon wearing glasses, modded at the far right corner of the stage, decorated as well with a round silver, medea-locked face like the profile on the American dime, gone softer and more benevolent. The lighting was perfect on all the glitter and dash present. Little ones were sitting on the floor up front, some thirty or so preschool to public.
The production started with pizazz and immediate identification as a woman named Annie Milne came out, with the ability to make herself any age, (this time a middling size girl)) talking about being bored, bringing with her an oversize comic book about a red-suited super hero with whom she identified. Then they swiped the age-old tale of the orphaned child forced to amuse itself in an adult world. Annie’s naughtiness and mischief is believable. Then in wild sucession, completely original characters (mostly manipulated by Tim Soper (Carpenter/actor/inventor), begin to whize on and off the stage, sometimes with appropriate songs. They dash and dazzle in all dimensions, texture and shape, charmingly juxtaposed so that each appearance seems brand new.
We are talked to between appearances, on and off, by the small purple dragon Annie has on her arm to begin with, and the twelve foot dragon who has an appropriate stately voice. In short order we meet Annie’s absent-minded uncle who has an air of mystery and perhaps danger, a wizard, a huge thin, silver-voiced shape shifter (who nearly steals the show as he dances and sings), the one dimensional, red-suited superhero from the comic in a compelling fit of ego drawn perfect, a completely credible tree with excellent bark who steals the talking book which is at the heart of the production and a space ship. The last two boom out into a surprised audience like scatttershot, weaving up and down the aisles, bumping and looping, which makes the whole thing seem real.
The songs remain in the mind after, tantalizing and merry. The audience long for each bit to go on longer which shows the experience and showbiz astuteness going on here. Everyone would’ve hollered for more, as the song goes, except, that wanting, is the thing that will bring them back. Looking back, the production seemed especially designed to lure chldren from the dvd and Disneyvideo, into examining the sensual world of play and pretend in their lives. Part of this was due to the textures, surprises, shapes, mixing human with puppet with art and with all the hallowed magic of theatre that true entertainment has always promised.
Throughly professional in every part, worth much more than the six bucks for tickets, lingering in the mind long afterward. I would imagine that the children seated on the floor will go on doing real play in their homes, with the ideas and actions they saw here, long after the show is over.