The mother of all enemies
Nov. 10th, 2006 11:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidLast night I was taken out* to see Paul Zaloom's The Mother of All Enemies, hosted by Theater Offensive as part of the Out on the Edge festival. It's part monologue, mostly shadow-puppet show; very political, very funny, and very rude. (I'm still rather shocked that someone brought a child to this; totally inappropriate.)
The puppet plot followed Karagoz after his arrent for kissing his boyfriend (in whichever Arab nation). He escapes because he gets wishes when he rubs his butt. Hijinks ensue, of course, as he escapes, temporarily landing in a camp for kid terrorists, then heading to the U.S. There were also some bits of apparently-autobiographical monologue directly to the audience rather than from behind the screen. (Motorcycle bumper stickers and variants, email with the Marines, and so on.)
He does an amazing variety of voices and puppets. We got to go 'backstage' to see how it worked afterward, seeing the stacks of silhouette puppets. Traditional Indonesian shadow puppets have the stick in the plane of the puppet, allowing them to be flipped, while (some other counry; I'm blanking which though) has the sticks perpendicular to the plane of the puppet, allowing rotations. His puppets are hinged, so the sticks can be either way, allowingg greater flexibility. Also, the hinged parts are weighted a bit, which makes the motion work better. I was impressed with the details of the outlines, and the functionality of the bike, which has both wheels move as the feet rotate (as long as the string 'chain' stays on :-). Impressive technology.
It's playing tonight and tomorrow night at the BCA's Calderwood Pavilion.
Random bonus track: two sets of Lego Tarot, plus Lego comics, and more. (Link courtesy of Autographedcat.)
* A birthday outing! (Which seems appropriate, given the group ;-).
The puppet plot followed Karagoz after his arrent for kissing his boyfriend (in whichever Arab nation). He escapes because he gets wishes when he rubs his butt. Hijinks ensue, of course, as he escapes, temporarily landing in a camp for kid terrorists, then heading to the U.S. There were also some bits of apparently-autobiographical monologue directly to the audience rather than from behind the screen. (Motorcycle bumper stickers and variants, email with the Marines, and so on.)
He does an amazing variety of voices and puppets. We got to go 'backstage' to see how it worked afterward, seeing the stacks of silhouette puppets. Traditional Indonesian shadow puppets have the stick in the plane of the puppet, allowing them to be flipped, while (some other counry; I'm blanking which though) has the sticks perpendicular to the plane of the puppet, allowing rotations. His puppets are hinged, so the sticks can be either way, allowingg greater flexibility. Also, the hinged parts are weighted a bit, which makes the motion work better. I was impressed with the details of the outlines, and the functionality of the bike, which has both wheels move as the feet rotate (as long as the string 'chain' stays on :-). Impressive technology.
It's playing tonight and tomorrow night at the BCA's Calderwood Pavilion.
Random bonus track: two sets of Lego Tarot, plus Lego comics, and more. (Link courtesy of Autographedcat.)
* A birthday outing! (Which seems appropriate, given the group ;-).