360 XL ARTS

Food for thought, via puppets

Trouble Puppet Theater tackles 'The Jungle,' Sinclair's exposé on meatpacking industry

By Jeanne Claire van Ryzin
AMERICAN-STATESMAN ARTS WRITER
Thursday, September 17, 2009

For Connor Hopkins, the appeal of puppetry comes from its rich mix of refined technique and common materials, its amalgam of simple storytelling that nevertheless relies on the complex and labor-intensive crafting of physical objects.

Lots of physical objects.

'We start with just an incredible amount of stuff,' says Hopkins, whose Trouble Puppet Theater Company will unveil his new production of Upton Sinclair's novel 'The Jungle' this weekend. 'Because, well, all of our performers are stuff.'

And all that stuff has been reworked into tabletop puppets roughly 30 inches tall that will be animated by nine human performers.

Puppets, after all, can't move by themselves.

Hopkins began developing 'The Jungle' while at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Puppetry Conference in 2007. A second trip to the O'Neill conference this summer saw the show develop even further as did a $2,000 grant from the Jim Henson Foundation, the nonprofit set up by the Muppets creator.

Hopkins found that Sinclair's groundbreaking exposé of the exploitative early 20th century labor conditions in Chicago's meatpacking industry — as well as the horrifying, unsanitary practices involved in food production — hit all of his buttons when it came to speaking to issues the puppetmaker found most important.

'A century after Sinclair's book, many of the situations still exist and are largely unchanged today,' Hopkins says. The prejudice toward recent immigrants, the problems of food contamination, the risks and dangers workers face in factory production — they are still problems we face today. 'It's important to remind ourselves that lots of what Sinclair was exposing is still with us. Food production is still one of the most dangerous industries in the world.'

Last year, Hopkins designed and presented an otherworldly puppet production of 'Frankenstein.' His other shows have focused on disruptive historical moments such as the 1605 plot to kill King James of England and also the Haymarket labor riots in 1886.

Although Sinclair's novel shocks with its graphic descriptions of the grisly and violent — and grossly filthy — procedures used in the commercial production of beef, Hopkins opted not to make his puppets bleed. Instead, crafting figures out of paper allows for a certain amount of creative license when it comes to interpreting violence.

But don't expect the puppet theater version of 'The Jungle' to be totally sanitized. 'There will be blood,' Hopkins says.

While the handcrafted puppets and their human assistants might give the hourlong production a basic and direct feel, behind-the-scenes it's all high tech with video projections and animations setting the atmosphere, An original score by Justin Sherburn of the band Okkervil River combines strains of eastern European folk music with blues and jazz vibes.

Again, it's all about that blend: hand-made and high tech, fantastical puppet figures and their human manipulators, swirled together to unfold a story.

jvanryzin@statesman.com; 445-3699

'The Jungle'

When: 8 p.m. Thursdays-Sundays through Oct. 4

Where:Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 Manor Road

Tickets:$15

Info:www.troublepuppet.com