While going to my community garden plot on a late summer Thursday, I’m greeted with an inability to park. Shakespeare in the park is over, the beleaguered CT Folkfest was waterlogged yet again, too many cars for a wedding. I ask an exiting party, what’s happening? A puppet show by the venerable Bread and Puppet Circus theater troupe. I catch the last twenty minutes of the politically charged skits. This outfit started in the Village in the mid 60s as a counter cultural crew speaking truth to power. They move to northern Vermont in the 70s, must be easier to park the ancient school/tour bus. First skit I see has three young contestants playing a game show regarding their future. First topic is housing, the contestants go to sit in chairs done up like houses only to have them pulled out from under them. Next up is debt, foam barbells with the word “debt” bombard the players. While the game show is happening, a “band” off stage left plays A Night in Tunisia. The trio consists of sousaphone, trumpet, and drums. As the game show ends, two puppet tigers enter and prowl the stage. The narrator yells “get them!” and the tigers moved toward the screeching kids in the front rows. “Not the audience, The System”, at this point we notice a young woman with a pig mask, a flag top hat, with a shirt emblazoned with “the system”, the tigers attack.The show ends with a great song and dance bit set to the tune of WhenThe Saints Go Marching In. A great crowd of young and old were mesmerized by the troupe. The backdrop of the stage has a sign “Our Domestic Resurrection Revolution In Progress”. After each show, Bread and Puppet will serve its famous sourdough rye with aioli and sell books, posters, and postcards to help get them to their next gig. It was heart warming to see a multigenerational crowd wowed by puppets and political commentary.
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