Playbill Series: Famous Puppet Death Scenes
June 22, 23, and 24, 7:30 p.m.
Margaret Greenham Theatre, The Banff Centre
Adult $19, Student/Senior/Child $15
Banff Centre Box Office: 1-800-413-8368 or 762-6301
Presented as part of the 2007 Banff Summer Arts Festival
Do you cringe at the thought of “another” birthday and shy away from conversations about mortality? Through their inventive mastery of puppetry, the Old Trout Puppet Workshop offers a unique and playful look at death. Premiered in 2006 and toured throughout Canada to rave reviews, Old Trout’s Famous Puppet Death Scenes stages delightful stories, joyful tragedies, and, in a way, ever-lasting life. Catch the puppets at The Banff Centre’s Margaret Greenham Theatre June 22, 23, and 24, as part of the 2007 Banff Summer Arts Festival Playbill Series.
Going against everything you thought you knew about puppets, and about mortality, Famous Puppet Death Scenes is a collection of famous characters and scenes selected from the best puppet shows in history. Blackly humorous, selections vary from a tragic murder in a fairy tale and a science fiction investigation into mortality, to a funeral ritual from some forgotten Japanese island. Scenes are brought together by a Master of Ceremonies, who is, not surprisingly, sensing his own impending mortality.
”That we can imagine inanimate pieces of wood with a few slivers artfully removed as living creatures is beautiful and bizarre,” critic Jeff Kubik wrote in Fast Forward Weekly. “That Calgary’s Old Trout Puppet Workshop’s latest work is built entirely on the emotional resonance and comic possibilities of taking these same lives away is simply remarkable.”
The Old Trout Puppet Workshop was founded in southern Alberta in 1999 and is now located in downtown Calgary. The company is dedicated to making professional puppet theatre, for both children and adults, continuously exploring the outer edges of the puppet medium, creating original, unique, and lively works. Their productions have toured across Canada and into the United States.
Tickets for all Banff Centre events are available through The Banff Centre Box Office: 1-800-413-8368 or 403-762-6301.
