Marionetas Do Porto
However ambiguous the message, all good theatre is about something. The power of puppetry might be how it happily lends itself to the presentation of non-linear, abstract, and fantastic material. If you share a fairly common adult opinion that rock music videos provide eye and ear candy, this Portuguese experimental hour-long work EXIT represented an MTV sensibility on stage. An elaborate electronic music score consistent with the hip visual approach seamlessly blended video projection and a 30" tall meticulously rendered realistic human figure with longish hair dressed in jeans and leather jacket. Manipulated by three invisible puppeteers, he was first seen as if persecuted, running rapidly toward us on a treadmill. This long sequence, created as believable an illusion of human movement as I have ever seen on the puppet stage. Running, floating through the air, crashing onto a bare mattress, twitching as if a suffering from a drug over-dose, and dancing, this show was essentially only a fluid series of dream-like humorless fragments. The puppet briefly interacted with a glamorous female dressed in the same red texture as a fish we had glimpsed at earlier. Tightly controlled lighting helped the smooth transformation of the playing space from a tabletop to the area upstage of the blinds that served as a changing projection surface. The three puppeteers wearing black raincoats and fedoras were occasionally seen persecuting and manhandling other rubbery characterless figures. Without a story line, the audience had to attempt to discern relationships between puppets, or between them and the puppeteers, but to no avail. Like TV viewers, we passively sat, watched, and admired the technical expertise on display, hoping that these talented artists might channel these fascinating resources more substantially in the future.
