“A. Two. Three.” Mister Rosewater gloomily counts today’s proceeds. Three measly euros has brought in his puppet show, which has been in the family for centuries. After years of hard work, he decides to call it quits. He puts the whole santen stall up for sale. However, Mr. Rozenwater soon comes into conflict with both his dolls, who feel betrayed, and with the new owner Miss Bedding, a feminist who prefers to set fire to the puppet theater because of the lack of political correctness.
Writer Ad de Bont and director Paul Knieriem dedicate themselves in an absurdist detour to a theme that concerns many artists and art lovers: which stale stories could use an update? Interesting performances have been made about this for years, such as the Crash test Ibsenseries by Sarah Moeremans, in which characters from Henrik Ibsen’s classic plays rebel against the writer’s outdated ideas.
Puppet show van de Toneelmakerij starts strong, with a hilarious puppet theater scene that follows exactly the old pattern: Katrijn cleans, Jan Klaassen goes to work, and when De Dood comes to visit, Jan thrashes him with a spatula while Katrijn is shaking in a corner . The beautiful puppets by scenographer Catharina Scholten and the energetic acting of actors Denise Aznam and Floyd Koster are bursting with charm. Aznam’s portrayal of the struggling puppet theater proprietor, Mister Rosewater, is particularly noteworthy: she manages to provide him with both pathos and masterful comic timing.
The conflict between Rozenwater and Bedding is also well highlighted: the cantankerous conservative versus the morally superior feminist, it doesn’t deserve a subtlety prize, but it fits in with the satirical atmosphere.
Lazy
Lost halfway through the performance Puppet show however all coherence. The enormous number of themes that the makers introduce in the first half (outdated gender roles, systemic racism, sexually transgressive behaviour, polarization in society) seem to have grown over their heads. And it remains completely unclear what they want to say about these topics now. Characters suddenly make choices that are in no way related to the foregoing and the conflicts introduced are conveniently pushed aside.
In the end, the performance ends with a new version of the puppet show that goes nowhere and gets stuck in mess. Perhaps the makers wanted to argue that we shouldn’t tamper too much with age-old story structures, but since many other makers have succeeded in doing so in an interesting way, they mainly show their own lack of imagination.
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