Curtains Up Winnipeg

From the sanctuary of her living room at home, a young girl waits for her videographer father to come home. As she watches his footage, she dreams longingly of seeing the Arctic world and its animals he films. When he leaves again, she stows away with him to witness this wilderness for herself. Told through some truly spectacular puppetry, projections, sounds and truly beautiful choreography, it demonstrates how emotional puppet performances can really be. Created by Glass Onion Puppet Company out of Vancouver, the story is based on the real life experience of a cast member following their father through the Arctic wilderness in search of footage. If you love puppets anywhere as much as I do, this is a much watch. It is an incredibly cohesive piece of theatre with not one gesture or prop out of place.

There is parallel drawn beautifully between the potential unknown of the wilderness and the daughter’s relationship with her father. The domestic sphere is beautifully illustrated with an adorable dog puppet, a TV and the sofa. he young girl is at first distanced from him by his trips to the Arctic, and at the same time longs to know both him and the land he loves, demonstrated by her repeated perusal of his video footage. The sounds and body language used for the father puppet manage to convey that he very much cares for his child but is also not good at expressing this affection in a way she understands. He also keeps her at a distance at home, leaving her to try to understand her parent through his work. When she escapes to join him (I think in his suitcase), you see the breakdown in these two separate worlds as the girl learns to live in this new landscape. The ending gives a wonderful resolution to their relationship dynamics and leaves you feeling hopeful that these two can learn to understand each other going forward.

We also just need to talk about the puppets, What is amazing about this show is how well their technical choices worked within the larger story. For example, the girl and her daughter moved in recognizable ways where you could tell the difference between rushing, strolling calmly, or even negotiating rocky terrain by how their legs were used, and moods by the movements of their head. . The Arctic wilderness was very much the third character in the story. At the same time, every animal from owl to lemming to bear was constructed in a way that was true to their actual behaviour. This much attention to detail felt like a true homage to the natural environment that inspired it.

Once again, with me I had Eli the children’s theatre consultant for a younger perspective. She said that it was “really cool and interesting” and that she “would prefer if there was more talking to get the story across”. She also had the interesting perspective that the show was “what (the girl) was imagining while looking at her dad’s videos that imagining she was there as well”. Eli ranked it as between “good” and “very good”, if only because she’s seen shows that she likes better this season. This is the first time we’ve really disagreed, if only because I absolutely loved it and thought this was the best show of the year.

This is an example of a very specific kind of beautifully crafted theatre you often only see in children’s theatre. It’s slow, deliberate, conscious of every visual moment, and hits emotional notes that just can’t be reached through a madcap script. As I watched it, I was reminded of Théâtre Cercle Molière’s production of Cet été qui chantait. It has that same sense of giving you a chance to feel and be present in the theatre. When you have a show like this, it breaks down the cultural obsession with rush and non-stop action. We need that. Not only is this a beautiful show, it is also a necessary one.

Add Glass Onion Puppet Company to the list of groups I will be keeping my eyes peeled for.