Story in two sentences:
Cavemen were depressed. Modern humans are depressed.
Deaf people who can't lip-read
Non-English speakers who can't hear high pitches
Stoned college students with intellectual pretensions
To be fair, I did get roped into watching this show. A friend had to see a professional show for school (and bring the ticket stub and program back as proof). So we hunted until we found a cheap one that was fairly close to us.
But I do have a soft spot for puppets of all types. One of the best shows I have seen to this day is a puppet show, and who doesn't like Avenue Q? I get a little worried when puppeteers consider themselves artistes, though, so was feeling a bit worried. The fact that few enough tickets had sold that we were shifted from our fairly bad seats (with easy access to an exit for our patented daring escape moves) to fairly good seats (exit only accessible by walking across the stage), coupled with a notice that there would be no intermission in the 75-minute show.
"It might be so bad that we can laugh our ways through it," offered our friend weakly. I glared at him.
As the lights went down and a sad-looking puppet started chasing a balloon before killing himself, our friend started laughing and we all started texting each other.
Technically, both in the sense of technique and technology, it was actually pretty good. The puppets were pretty cool (except the sad men -- they were creepy without being interesting), the puppetry was well-executed, and the projections on the wall of the cave (ugh) were kinda cool. Artistically, it was horrible.
Well, maybe I mean "intellectually." The premise of the show was that humans cannot be happy because we always want more, and that this congenital misery began when our ancestors first gained the capacity to imagine that which was not. I take issue with this premise. First of all, because it is incorrect, and secondly because it allows people to say "it's all part of being human, so we can't help it" and never actually work on the real problems, be they individual or societal.
But more than that, it is the sort of drivel that comes from taking a single philosophy course to satisfy the requirements of your theatre arts diploma, then forgetting about it for twenty years, or going on a few dates with a philosophy major in college, and never bothering to actually think your way through the information that was presented to you. Drives me crazy.
The set was ok, the costumes were not good (long johns are an invitation to visible ass-crack sweat), and the sound was inoffensive.
Don't go. You can't anyway, I think I saw it on closing night.
Some highlights:
Many of the puppets really were good, particularly the cavemen.
Watching a puppet parallel park (although the angst with which he reacted to his own anger mitigated my delight).
Ummm. . . that may be it.
