BY TAMAR NEUMANN: The latest production from In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre (HOBT), The Story of Crow Boy, is an adaptation of the children’s book by the same name. But due to the nature of theatre and the collaboration of this production, it is much more than that. It goes beyond…
By LIZ + BRYCE BYRON. Victor + Valentine is a new play by new theater company Collective Unconscious Performance. The play centers around storyteller and puppeteer Victor von Valentine as he puts on the final performance of his world-touring Cabaret For The Broken-hearted. Featuring artistic re-tellings of classic fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen, Victor’s cabaret includes The…
Open Eye Figure Theater’s adaptation of The Juniper Tree uses an innovative blend of live actors, beautiful stage design, and amazing puppetry to bring to life one of the Grimm Brothers’ more gruesome tales. This is no children’s tale, as it brings together love, loss, murder, and cannibalism, while still leaving room for a happy…
by LIZ PANTING, guest reviewer Are you ever at the theatre and feel bored before the curtain goes up? Do you find yourself thinking all plays are starting to look the same? Go see a PuppetLab show at In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre. Something in it will take you off…
by SOPHIE KERMAN Any attempt at writing a play about genocide is immediately plagued by a host of ethical problems. In representing an individual’s testimony on stage, the playwright risks co-opting the voice of the victim or trivializing a traumatic experience in order to gain an emotional response from the audience. And yet taking too…
by ANNA ROSENSWEIG Conceived by Open Eye Figure Theatre’s co-founder Michael Sommers, this new marionette play, A Sorcerer’s Apprentice, is an adaptation of Goethe’s 1797 poem Der Zauberlehling. Most viewers, however, will be more familiar with the version featured in Disney’s Fantasia (1940). Remember the famous scene with Mickey Mouse and the brooms? Sommers’ version…
by SOPHIE KERMAN Blair Thomas may have just changed the way I think about puppet shows. While In the Heart of the Beast has made itself known for its kid-friendly, large-scale puppet theater, Thomas’s Hard Headed Heart is not for children and only partly about puppets. This trio of short pieces, each an adaptation of a different…
by SOPHIE KERMAN In the summer of 2011, I spent a few hurried weeks hunting for the perfect one-bedroom apartment on a graduate student’s budget**. One of the best prospects, at least on paper, was a garden-level with impressive square footage for the price. But when I got there, I was both fascinated and a…
by SOPHIE KERMAN Did you know how turtles make it through the winter? Ever wonder whether they dream? With the help of their signature giant puppets, In the Heart of the Beast Theatre (HOBT) uses real wintry adaptations as a jumping-off point to imagine what animals think about during the cold winter months. But if…
Aisle Say - Twin Cities 