And quoth the puppet: 'nevermore'

SHAWN CHENG/YH

Did you ever wish you could recapture the magic of Reading Rainbow? The unforgettable theme song ("reading rainboooooooow!"), coupled with enchanting visual retellings of popular children's stories, piqued a lifelong interest in reading for many of us. Not to mention the weekly dose of Levar Burton, the guy who played Jordy Laforge on Star Trek:The Next Generation. Attending the Sat., Sept. 25 show of the storytelling troupe, Puppetsweat, in the Audubon Arts District just might be enough to satiate that nostalgic craving for unique storytelling.

Puppetsweat, a project of the non-profit arts group Azdak's Garden, Inc., incorporates shadow puppetry with live readings of works by Edgar Allen Poe. Three generations of drama students provide the creative and technical work behind the nine-year-old company. Leslie Weinberg, a director involved with puppetry for 20 years, explains the name as a "reflection of duality." Puppetsweat, according to Weinberg, is almost an "oxymoron" in its juxtaposition of an organic product, sweat, with inorganic puppets.

For those who have never encountered Puppetsweat, the use of shadow puppets proves to be even more perplexing. Most people, upon hearing the term, envision someone's father using their hand and a flashlight to make a dog on the wall (or a rooster, if daddy is really creative). Yet the images of Puppetsweat are much more than a finger festival. Real actors in Poe-era garb carry a variety of cut-out pictograms and figures of varying sizes across a large screen set in the center of the stage.

"Shadow puppetry is a compelling form of storytelling utilized by Indonesian and Javan cultures," Weinberg explained. Although shadow puppets are traditionally used to weave historical and cultural tales in Southeast Asia, Puppetsweat is a modern expression of an ancient art. The stylized figures, representing ideas as well as people, are combined with period costumes and a classic American author for a specifically American spectacle.

The puzzlement surrounding Puppetsweat's choice of subject matter adds another fascinating layer to this production. The query, "Why Poe?" elicits an interesting answer from the participants. In conjunction with live narration, the use of shadows to tell a tale creates a mood suitably creepy enough for the gloomy meanderings of Poe. Weinberg explained that the stories selected for interpretation by Puppetsweat are an "extended rhapsody" linked by theme. "Found in a Bottle," "The Man of the Crowd," and "The Telltale Heart" are each explorations of the nature and the residence of evil. The performance is specifically arranged to interrogate the subject matter. The order in which the tales are presented—depicting the terrors of nature, humanity, and our very souls—add to the visual impact of the show and illustrate an intimate understanding of his work.

Although a performance based on silhouette and light would normally bespeak a singularity of dimension, Puppetsweat actually thrives on its complication of an otherwise flat form. The director Robert Bresnick observed that negotiating an abbreviation of Poe's text, as well as representing the unique interiority of his work within a plot-driven art, required careful consideration to the feeling created by Poe's works. Depth is achieved, then, through an amalgamation of light, video, perspective, and music. The original scoring of Istvan B'Racz, an atmospheric, postmodernist composition, paired with the haunting narration of Jerry Forbes, adds an eerie layer to the tales of Poe. Although this unique retelling lacks the Levar Burton factor, the total effect of "Puppetsweat" is a virtual palimpsest of sound and image, a unique take on Poe and American storytelling.

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