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Two Weeks with Bread & Puppet Theater: Part VII 12/20/2003 7:27:03 AM
The Federal Re-Adjustment of Paradise Program: What the scene was about, what it was like to perform in it, and how I related to the material. Comments are welcome.
The Circus relies on spectacle to entertain, and to the extent that it comments on the larger world it does so with such slapstick routines as the Homeland Security Marching Band or the Rotten Idea Theater Company's skits with the Kaspars. If the Circus of the Possibilitarians is like vaudeville, circus, and commedia dell'arte then the Oratorio of the Possibilitarians is like medieval theater.
The Oratorio is in the tradition of medieval theater on at least two fronts: 1.) it is populist (as was the commedia); and 2.) it functions on an allegorical level in that some spectacle is used to convey some complex philosophical position.
In the Oratorio, the key act seems to be the "Federal Re-Adjustment of Paradise Program." Before, we have heard of the enemy of nature and a clash of one body part against the other and some University of Hands and Feet where bodies are taught those skills that make one whole again: embracing, caressing, walking, etc. And of course, we end the play with the unified bodies of the sleeper and the giant marionette high above.
I am backstage at the beginning of the Federal Readjustment with a dust mask hanging around my neck and barefoot once again. I hear the representatives of the existing order of life introduce themselves. They are tall cardboard charactertures with names like "Truth", "New York Times" and "Normalcy." They say things like "I am abused because of myself" or "I hit you with myself" or "I represent and misrepresent all of these selves." There are nine of them total. Backstage I wait for my partner, a lion puppet to join me. I have gotten into the habit of rubbing my lion on the bridge of the nose before we go on stage and the usual puppeteerm Rosalie purrs back from under the paper mache. We are lined up, two by two, animal and handler/technician/engineer (the job title changes from night to night.) There is also a sheep, a frog, a gorilla, and an elephant each with their handlers
We promenade paw in hand, dancing to the band's rendition of "Good Ship Lollipop" Strawberry is in the front of the stage dressed again in white 18th century formal wear with a wig that makes her look like Mozart as she conducts. We bring our animals to proper spots on the stage marked with small Xs.
The animals represent paradise and had been seen at the beginning of the Oratorio just after the other body parts and I had retreated off stage. Behind us is a set made of cardboard flats with the words "Immigration and De-Naturalization." This scene is sometimes difficult because when Rosalie has to take a few nights off (this happens in a production that relies so heavily on volunteers), I get a different puppeteer under the lion mask in a scene that requires some communication between the performers though one of whom can barely see a thing from under the mask. We enter to the tune of "Good Ship Lollipop." which forms the musical interludes of this scene. I have to lead the beast about the stage but like any cat, she has a will of her own and often tries to lead, or sits in not quite the right spot on the stage. I remind myself that my lion is actually less willfull than the flesh and blood cat at home. I find that this willfulness actually strengthens the stage rapport between Rosalie and myself. Once in our spots, the conductor taps her baton and Peter Schumann gives the directions to "employ security procedures" which involves we technicians putting on our dust masks. Our next instruction is to "employ separation of body and soul equipment." At this point the band begins again and pulleys lower hooks from above. I hook the cable into a loop on the back of the lion mask and as the music continues masks and costumes are lifted and hang like carcasses on meat hooks.
The animal puppeteers are left with cardboard flames over their faces (the souls from the University scene) and engineers dance with our animals in a round of "Hallelujahs!" before leading them on another dance, depositing them on stage right, bowing, and exiting.
While I am off stage, five puppeteers with cardboard airplanes labeled F-16 and five performers carrying giant McDonald's boxes enter. Peter never seems satisfied with the airplanes on stage. I think I understand what he wants but alas, I am playing other parts in that scene and the airplanes are already cast (one night I get to double as a McDonald's box.) What he envisions is something of a dance in which the puppeteer leads with the F-16, the arm, the shoulder, the eyes and the rest of the body following behind. It's not their fault though. This vocabulary is commonsensical for movement artists like mimes and dancers but may make little sense to a realistic actor or a musician. From the very first rehearsals, Peter stresses the importance of holding the planes at angles so that the word "F-16" is visible from the audience. This scene is entitled "Activating Globalization Industry" and at this point, with fighter escort, the McDonald's box lids are opened and the animal carcasses are lowered into the boxes. Here begins the next scene "Processing Souls at Immigration & Denaturalization Services."
The former animal souls queue up as the are processed by the two agents played by John and Eddie, as the animal carcasses are boxed for consumption. They exchange their cardboard flames for full masks that are simply black signs with eye slits. They read only "Enemy of Nature.“ As they are masked, Eddie and John rename them as in the Ellis Island myth. The new enemy of nature souls are labeled like products-- "Not a Toy" or for art movements discussed at a cast party-- "Fluxus" or for a war game that Isaac likes to play-- "Warhammer." When all souls have been renamed and denaturalized a procession begins in which airplanes, food handlers, agents, and others parade in the movement of globalization. At this point I return to the stage and join in the parade.
Globalization places us into our spots for another improvised musical piece, entitled "The Manifesto for the Fast World Motette”, based on a New York Times editorial by Thomas Friedman dated March 28, 1999. I stand next to Alan behind the two readers, Vasilios and Rose. By coincidence, Rose explains at some point that she is actually cousins with Thomas Friedman.
Peter makes various onomatopoeias and directs various sections of a chorus of McDonald's boxes, F-16s, orchestra members, and enemies of nature to imitate, layering sounds on top of one another. Sometimes he silences us for the spoken word section and sometimes he lifts syllables from the spoken text for the chorus to repeat. The text begins:
"McDonald's cannot flourish without the F-16. The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist. The hidden fist that keeps the world safe for our technologies is the US Army Air force Navy [...]"
This I consider an example of Peter Schumann's brilliance. Using two short excerpts of text, one from the New York Times, the other from a book by a professor at Bard College, he extrapolates and presents a critique of modernity using a number of sensual media that require little virtuosity from the performers: simply constructed masks and puppets, simple dance choreography. And so with paper mache, cardboard, paint, some over the top performances, I hear echoes of the intellectual journey I have been on since I was 19 and first read E.J. Dijksterhuis' "The Mechanization of the World Picture: Pythagoras to Newton" as supplemental material in my History of Philosophy II class while reading Hannah Arendt's "The Human Condition" and Heidegger's "On the Question Concerning Technology" and "Letter on Humanism" in my "Phenomenology & Existentialism" class. Throughout the Oratorio, Schumann is addressing Western metaphysics as embodied in our current organization of the world into systems of things to be compartmentalized, labeled and controlled. It's a world that I see about me all the time but I rarely seem to encounter people who see it on this scale and have figured out how to address it through art.
And of course, this is why I knew I needed to be part of Bread & Puppet for every show of the Cambridge run.
