A Puppet’s World is Flat

The Table – Chicago Shakespeare Theatre

As part of CST’s lauded and much-welcome World Stages Series, the United Kingdom’s eclectic Blind Summit Theatre tours to Navy Pier with a three-person, one-puppet performance that defies description. Not so much a play, and certainly not a “puppet show” in the literal sense, this ingeniously offbeat 70-minute production is part philosophical discussion, part stand-up comedy act.

The technical support for this performance couldn’t be simpler: a table placed front and center on an otherwise empty stage, enough lighting to illuminate Moses, the irascible Bunraku star of this performance piece, and his puppeteers Mark Down, Sean Garratt and Irena Stratieva. As director, Down operates the character’s left hand and large, cardboard head, while providing Moses‘ voice. Garratt controls the puppet’s right hand and “bum” while Ms. Stratieva, bent over the table, manipulates the character’s feet. With the puppeteers clad entirely in black, the effect is that Moses is really in control of his humans.

Artistically Gut-Wrenching Theatre

Lord of the Flies

In this thrilling environmental production of William Golding’s controversial novel, the audience experiences this