Welcome to the Chicago International Puppet Fest. Since all of you can’t be here in frigid Chicago, I’m going to try to describe the joy of puppetry through the shows we attended.
Immediately when I read about Chimpanzee, I knew the story. A family, whose father is a behavioral scientist, takes a baby chimp into their home and raises it as their own child. Of course, the end is a tragic failure. But it was mixed with happiness, love, and coming of age for the boy-child in the family.*
Chimpanzee opens with a void, black stage, over lit by a single white fluorescent tube. There is one character, the chimp. There are two environments—the test lab that is over lit by the florescent bulb and the home that is lit below with warm incandescent light. It’s clear that the chimp is confined in the lab. He appears to dream of the home, long for the home, and remember being free. That’s the one-hour story.
There are three puppeteers— Rowan Magee, Andy Manjuck, and Enna Wiseman. The chimp has 12 articulations. There is no script—only a deft soundtrack of noises that propels the action. Stunning. Heart-breaking.
This short YouTube video says it all.
* It’s likely I read the book, Half Brother a novel by Kenneth Oppel about such experiments in the 70s.
photos by Richard Termine