Agit-Prop Outdoors by a School Bus
An enlightening evening with Bread & Puppet Theater’s Heart of the Matter Circus, Old Stone House, Brooklyn, NY, 8 September
Photo by Ángel L. Martínez
The Glover, Vt.-based activist troupe Bread and Puppet Theater arrived for matinee and evening appearance on Friday, 8 September, by the Old Stone House in Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY. What is written below is about the show performed on a post-rain summer evening.
After the show was done, I realized that my notes resembled random lines of poetry rather than any prose that could be called a “review” of the presentation tonight. I further remembered that Bread and Puppet Theater’s texts consist primarily of:
Songs (with and without lyrics)
Rapid bits of poetry
Prose recited poetically
Protest signs
Given that puppetry is at the center of their political discourse, a physical performance
So why not compose a review in verse, subversively? It is all part of my intent to amplify this cultural section of revolutionary struggle.
The voyage down Fourth Avenue, Park Slope
Wanting that the rain would not take over the night
Arrived relieved
As the trumpet was blown loudly from the opposite end of the field
Out of the dark, legendary old school bus that survived the showers has brought the journey
of the Bread & Puppet Theater
to be front of the Old Stone House
Tonight, the bus would be the backstage.
The house was but a window-lit backdrop to the 8 pm circus
The big yellow bus with 2 Earth flags flying over it on house made flagpoles
and the art for tonight’s show
The Heart of the Matter Circus
Red heart flying in the face of all oppressions
draped on the driver side facing the audience
The brass band and chorus began
their signature protest song:
¡El Pueblo Unido Jamás Será Vencido!
The song over time is
Only more necessary
Soon to the front folk quartet plays
as the puppets emerge from behind the bus
Along with a sign with a question for all to ask:
WHY
Then the chant: WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?!
One possible answer: WE ARE UNPREPARED
Incredible! The band is playing the ending of
The Firebird by Igor Stravinsky
A message without words
As only Bread & Puppet can do
Like the Firebird
The gargantuan puppets
& over-the-head masks
the massive, beautiful, in-your-face papier-mâché creations
Are symbols
They point to a better Earth
Mother Earth enormous puppet is raised high by the bus
Mother Earth is under threat by capitalists
The crowd boos tycoon and their “government cronies”
Note the emphasis the Theater places
It’s the bosses first and the state that’s solidly behind them
(To talk about the government and never the corporations is silence on who’s really in charge.)
Imagine this as we see a vision of
Mother Earth in struggle against a Grotesque Uncle Sam
Angelic- like figures act
In defense of Earth
They raise a placard saying
Held v Montana,
a case brought by young people
for the constitutional right to live
right to live
on a healthy planet
A tennis tournament is played to the rhythm
of a progressively faster “Ode to Joy”
Clotheslines fluttering under the lamps to represent a sea with a sinking ship - of capitalism
Audience participation gained
YOU CAN DO WAY BETTER THAN THAT!
Boos to ALL FEMALE Supreme Court (leader wearing a judge’s wig)
They all then disrobe into ersatz superhero costume and each has letter spelling
F-A-S-C-I-S-T
Time for a Q & A (¿?):
By the way do you have loans to pay?
We got something for a rainy day!
Never mind earlier it rained
Sitting on plastic grass
while the park lamps provide
more illumination with the stage lighting
2.5 M tons of cluster bombs on Laos by US 40 % still not exploded on impact since Vietnam war
Sign carried my papier-mâché masked stagehand in blue: FREE JULIAN ASSANGE
Resembling a taiko drummer with an oil barrel full of props, all a recitation of the lies used by US and NATO to start war in Ukraine
It’s a circus, so we see giant puppet
Circus Horses!
The white equines in white costume
gallop in front of the big yellow bus for liberation
(Bring your own red flag)
2004 reminder of Aristide overthrow by US
with a Carib carnival procession
in acknowledgement of truth
“The Blue Danube”
arranged for accordion and 2 hammers
as a (puppet) nuke missile punctures the air
In one moment,
the hammers substituted
by two-note school bus horn honks
I think I found my favorite musique concrète
this side of Gamble & Huff’s
“Expressway to Your Heart”
Sound of a mournful cuica
a woman dances alone
energetically
in memory of disappeared
after the 11th of September
(pause)
1973
the day of the US-backed coup in Chile
As per Bread and Puppet’s
political education
Some words from
from Peter Kropotkin on mutual aid
Apropos for a free show
dedicated to real freedom
which must include free bread for all
(a little more on the last part later)
A Heart of the Matter petroleum magnate rationalizes in poverty pimp speak
Cue the BOOOOOS!!!
Cue the trumpet
“Fanfare for the Common Man” arises
Shout out to 80 years premiere of
As the open air stage fills with the troupe
in worker costumes and the
eye-opening oversized masks
75 years of the House Un-American Activities Committee
Audience participation: BOOOOOO!
Shout out to “Fanfare”’s composer
Aaron Copland
Who was Interrogated by this “committee”
Monster Uncle Sam reappears
For the recitation of burning questions
Are you or have you:
Ever been a communist?
Had a abortion?
Ever read a banned book?
All on stage and on the plastic grass answered
YES!!!
Dedicated, not at the end,
to those who endured
the Flood of Vermont this past July
A dance compels us to ask:
¿what is war?
¿who profits?
¿who dies?
Close out:
The band sends off with
“Oh When the Saints Go Marching In”
Even in suffering
Some joy
Some hope
And, as a parting gift,
a slice of fresh bread with aioli
This is fantastic.