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Highly
strung
by Josephine Humphreys
 If
someone said to you, "lets go to a puppet show,"
you'd probably imagine something along the lines of that
cute lonely goat herd scene from the Sound of Music, or
a frog on stage surrounded by multi-coloured monsters
whilst being 'hi-yahed' by a pig. What you almost certainly
wouldn't imagine is 14 two-foot high, 'real' characters
engaged in an emotionally explosive exploration of love
and death, faith and family, religion and redemption,
all drenched in metaphorical blood. That's because you've
never seen a Ronnie Burkett puppet show before.
Written,
created and performed entirely by Canadian artist Ronnie
Burkett, Street of Blood was inspired by the HIV contaminated
blood supply scandal in the early Nineties. Burkett describes
the style as 'Prairie Gothic' as the play, set in a small
prairie community, concerns itself with a variety of contemporary
blood lusts: Aids, blood relations verses adoption and
the Vampiric nature of celebrity culture are all considered.
If that wasn't complex enough Burkett also decides to
throw religion into the mix; the spiritual component of
blood, the blood of Christ, is both the catalyst and the
main thread of the play. Edna Rural, a small town biddy
- who Burkett describes as "a lethal blend of enormous
humanity and largesse of spirit mixed with petty small-minded
fear" - pricks her finger whilst sewing and sees
the face of Christ in the blood stained quilt square.
Suddenly the media and the faithful descend on Edna's
tiny rural community to see this 'shroud of Turnip Corners',
and then things really get strange.
Esme
Masengill, a has-been Hollywood actress, who just also
happens to be a vampire in search of 'fresh blood', appears
with her demonic troop to stage a musical about the life
of the Virgin Mary. Her reason being, to simply "piss
off everyone on the planet!" Meanwhile, Edna must
also come to accept her adopted son Eden, a karaoke singing
gay terrorist, whose rage is such that he blows up gay
clubs and blames it on the Religious Right; bury her husband,
who contracted AIDS from a contaminated blood transfusion;
and, finally, acknowledge her own HIV+ status and confront
her own mortality.
Clearly
this is no kids show, and two hours plus with no interval
may seem a bit long for such intensity, but don't let
the serious subject matter and sledgehammer metaphors
put you off. Burkett has a deft touch and injects even
the darkest moments with a unique camp black humour which
has led to the play being described as 'brilliantly, heartbreakingly
funny.' You may be thinking 'sounds good, but puppets?!'
Burkett spends over a hundred hours perfecting the appearance
of each puppet; his amazing ability with such a diverse
range of voices, combined with the completely realistic
body language he achieves, means they soon take on the
proportions of life size actors and you find yourself
caring deeply about them. Thunderbirds this ain't! In
fact among the numerous awards Burkett has won, there
are as many for his challenging writing and acting talents
as his expert marionette skills; he won the Samuel Beckett
award for best play at the Dublin Festival in 1998.
The
international acclaim Burkett has received may be in part
to do with the amount of soul he pours into his work,
and into his tiny lovingly constructed actors. He believes
that, "if you present ideas that are politically
dangerous or controversial, in a spirit of personal honesty
and truth the audience will take them and run with them…
I'm all the three main characters: Esme's bitchiness is
mine. Edna's hopefulness is mine. Eden's disappointment
with the gay community and fury at the straight is mine,
too."
This
is a very different kind of theatrical experience, but
one worth trying; bitchy, funny, at times extremely disturbing
as well as passionate and touching. If you're a huge Muppets
fan it's probably a good idea to think twice, but I'd
go see it. It's deeply ironic and - a tribute to Burkett's
talent- artistically inspired that wooden people can be
so movingly convincing in a play that is obsessed with
flesh and blood.
Street
of Blood is at the Gardner Arts Centre, May 15-18 .
For
more event details see www.brighton-festival.org.uk
or pick up a copy of the Festival brochure or this month's
The Insight magazine
copyright New Insight 2002
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