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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2012 > January > 25 > Entry
Review: Trouble Puppet’s ‘Crapstall St. Boys’
With thunder in the sky and grimly funny stories on the stage, this year’s Frontera Fest Long Fringe is off to a mischievous start.
Trouble Puppet Theater is up to its usual hijinks, providing a piece of biting social commentary wrapped in a cloak of adorable puppets.
Creator and director Connor Hopkins’ new macabre fairy tale, “Crapstall St. Boys,” is decidedly in the vein of Edward Gorey and Lemony Snicket. The events in this play are anything but fortunate - which isn’t to say they aren’t delightful, but that may depend on your sense of humor and your age. This show is not for children.
Serving as flagrant condemnations of industrial capitalism and its costs on our humanity, the characters of “Crapstall St.” would be downright Dickensian if it weren’t for the cannibalism and three-eyed monsters sprinkled throughout the show. K. Eliot Hayes’ excellent sound design adds an ominous ambiance that makes the show darkly gripping for the full 50 minutes that it runs.
Departing from Trouble Puppet’s usual style (several people for each puppet), “Crapstall St.” features (at times) several puppets per puppeteer. They’ve assembled (literally) an ensemble of ragamuffin youths and uncaring adults that are so adorable it’s easy to forget we’re watching a scene of death, destruction and decapitation.
Add to that the juxtaposition of a circus-style opening act, and “Crapstall St. Boys” becomes a disconcerting delight of childhood wonder and adult cynicism. The carnivalesque, vaudevillian entertainment of Chickendog Circus opens the show with juggling, accordion music, unicycle riding and a surprise guest appearance by the fabulously talented Jingles.
Chickendog Circus sets the stage nicely for the performance ahead; because there’s a sort of magic to both juggling and puppetry, it helps the audience rediscover the sense of reverence that comes with youth. But Hopkins adds to that the healthy dose of cynicism that a socially-minded adult can’t help but have in these modern times - resulting in a show that takes us back but doesn’t let us leave with the warm and fuzzy fairy tale ending that experience has taught us to expect (and write off as ridiculous).
“Crapstall St. Boys” continues 11 p.m. Jan. 28, 3:15 p.m. Sunday, 6:45 p.m. Feb. 4.Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 Manor Road. $10. www.troublepuppet.com
Cate Blouke is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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