Ignorance is Creative Genius

Ignorance is a unique puppet play: it was created partially by the online community. If you want to read more about that process visit www.theoldtrouts.org/ignorance.

This kind of “Open Creation” scares me as an audience member, I don’t trust my peers to help create anything I might be interested in seeing. But I like the company and the synopsis was intriguing and how on earth could I not go see a puppet documentary about the evolution of happiness?

And Old Trout aren’t pulling any punches. Yes, this is a fun, ridiculous, funny, cute and heartwarming play, but it’s also horrifying, depressing and even a little scary. Mercilessly, just when you think everything is about to turn into happy endings, reality knocks our heros down even harder than before.

It takes a special group of creators, performers and directors to make me feel very strongly about 2 pieces of wood, a wig and a stick. I felt like a kid at my first Punch and Judy show, very much wanting to shout out “He’s behind you!” when the relevant monster lurked on to the stage. (I didn’t, thank you, but it was a very near thing.)

With imagination anything can be a puppet, all you need a a strangely shaped stick and a sprinkle of anthropomorphism. Here lies the true magnificence of the Old Trout Puppet Workshop, they blend a variety of puppeteering styles together, as well as blending the logic of our reality universe and their created universe together until this particular audience member will believe just about anything they put in front of her.

I would call what Old Trout do efficient creativity: not bare bones, but not heavily dependant on technical effects either. From the sound track to the puppets themselves there is a good mixture of electronic and plastic effects. Each piece has its purpose (and most pieces MANY purposes), nothing is superfluous and it's all just so well thought out.

In my mind economy and creativity within structure is the sign of a true craftsman. It takes a lot of planning and imagination to keep a show tour-able, practical and tight while still managing to fill your audience with delight and awe. And a little can go a long way when placed correctly, like putting a fan under the puppet man who is standing on the building’s ledge. Suddenly our perceptual dimensions shift and he is more real than he was before. The letter he rips up blows away out of his reach and his tie flaps in the wind. Consistency creates magic. Deliberate interfaces with our “outside world reality” allow the story to extend past the theatre walls and into our every day lives. Which means that the play can truly have an impact in our lives.

I have a theory about puppet theatre and other more minimalist theatre genres with regards to audience investment. In a more realistic theatrical production the audience is presented with a story and a good actor will get you to be invested in his performance because you can relate to his struggle. In puppet theatre you are not presented with a story, you are invited to help create one. It is only the participation of your imagination, your filling in the missing details that makes the performance what it is. You are a partner in crime, it's yours, you care more, you believe more and jsut like that the story becomes magical.

This audience investment coupled with the power of laughter to open our hearts, allows Ignorance to discuss some very scary and thought provoking questions. This show is not just a romp of silliness and adorable artifice. It has depths. It is a very powerful comment on the purpose of humanity. Why are we here? What are we striving for? What is the point of it all?

In the end, I think that the play had a reasonably uplifting message. There's a good healthy does of cynicism in there. A little more determinism than suits my palette, but in the end, there is hope for the species. Something bigger than happiness. Now if only we could work out what that was...