Don't let the puppets fool you: This is not for kids

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May 4, 2012

Adult fare with a childlike touch; The Heretics of Bohemia takes wild leaps into wacky scenarios

By PAT DONNELLY, The Gazette May 4, 2012

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It's all about the puppets.

Scapegoat Carnivale's latest production, The Heretics of Bohemia, is a madcap fantasy that serves as a showcase for the superlative puppet-making skills of Zach Fraser.

My two favourite moments were watching Paul Van Dyck as the King of Moravia, crossing and uncrossing his tiny fabric legs, and seeing the head of a jailed marionette explode as a result of an ineptly applied magic spell.

No, this is not children's theatre. It's childish adult theatre determined to provoke as well as amuse, suitable for anyone over 12.

As for the incredibly convoluted script, playwright Joseph Shragge deserves credit for taking wild leaps into wacky scenarios involving a cavalcade of vivid characters including the mad King of Bohemia (Michel Perron) and his manipulative Queen Mother (Leni Parker), as well as numerous villagers, message-bearing birds, rebels and fools.

As he sinks into extreme paranoia, the tyrannical King of Bohemia sees symbols of heretics and signs of insurgence everywhere. The Queen, unable to bring him to reason, finds herself chasing him throughout the kingdom as he pursues his hallucinatory illusions.

Director Alison Podbrey has somehow managed to make manipulators out of actors while retaining their personalities rather than erasing them into dark anonymity. Actor Dan Jeannotte of the sketch comedy troupe Uncalled For, who gave a virtuoso performance as the troubled young boy in Equus at the Segal last season, has reinvented himself once again, hilariously, as the human motor for several puppet characters. Catherine Lemieux does a lovely job as the voice and arm behind the messenger-bird,

Besides Perron, as the King, and Parker as his mother, only Andreas Aspergis, as her raunchy courtier, and Felicia Shulman, as the seductive amazon of an executioner, Pillet, operate as non-puppet characters. According to the program, however, they pitch in backstage as shadow puppet manipulators, too.

In some ways this is art about art, full of self-questioning about the function of masks in the search for identity. One of the most poignant characters has no face at all. At one point the Bohemian King blurts out, "We have an issue. I'm unclear who I am,'' then calls for a vote.

Eventually, all the hyper energetic buffoonish performances do become a little tiresome as we become aware that their function is to gloss over the potholes in the Monty-Python-invades-Camelot narrative. Cleverness is not always enough.

But the puppets make it all worthwhile. Fraser has run the gamut of perspective possibilities, ranging from towering giants to a "bouquet" of tiny soldiers who follow the King of Moravia wherever he goes. Not since the passing of Felix Mirbt (or the last visit of Ronnie Burkett) have we seen such a genius of puppetry operating in English Montreal.

Susan Vera's costumes harmonize with Fraser's ashen-faced, wooden-limbed creations. The set, by Julie Bourbonnais, with its shoreline steps, shadowy backdrop of castles and curly sea waves, and clothesline moon is delightfully Boho-chic fairy tale.

The secret to enjoying this show is to lean back and go with the flow of the parade of zany little people with big people moving their arms and legs.

The Heretics of Bohemia, by Joseph Shragge, at Segal Centre Studio until May 19. Tickets, $25; seniors $18; students $15. 514-739-7944, scapegoatcarnivaletheatre. com or segalcentre.org

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