Bread & Puppet Theater returns to Next Stage in Putney, with a new play, Faust 3, a proletarian rumination on displacement, heaven, and satisfaction in the tradition of Medieval Faust puppet shows and Goethe’s epic verse drama.
As thematically and formally diverse as Goethe’s Faust 1 and 2, Bread and Puppet’s Faust 3 draws its public through a dreamlike succession of scenes depicting various aspects of proletarian experience in our time: from refugee migration, to the ubiquity of the gun; from the hunger that accompanies food product diversity, to the daily experience of factory workers, the rebellion of prisoners, and the adoration of the sun. “Faust 3” himself is played by a small hand-puppet, darting between the hopper and the spout of a giant grain mill. A phalanx of black folding chairs menaces the masses with its resolutions of pity. The arms of a giant blue embracing puppet fill the stage. Lubberland choral dancers hop, wiggle, and whistle. And a purple brass band arrives to jitter levity into the feet of the population.
The Bread and Puppet Practitioners-Of-The-Pursuit-Of-What String Band will welcome the public.
Bread and Puppet director, Peter Schumann, describes Faust 3 as follows:
“After Faust 2’s contract with the devil came to an end — because the guest had been fulfilled and satisfaction had been achieved — Faust 2 died. But the demand for more light which Goethe issued at his own death requires a new model of Faust, an actor in the history of light, a conspirator who pursues the disordering of the existing order of life, & sides with the Proletariat’s demand for the radicalization of leisure. Gargoyles are employed to manage the uneasy masses. Both devil & angel, disguised as undercover agents, accompany Faust 3’s journey through the mess of the modern empire all the way to the glorious final appearance of the Here.”
After the performance Bread and Puppet will serve its famous free sourdough rye bread with aioli, and Bread and Puppet’s “Cheap Art” – books, posters, postcards, pamphlets and banners from the Bread and Puppet Press – will be for sale.
Bread & Puppet Theater is an internationally recognized company that champions a visually rich, street-theater brand of performance art filled with music, dance and slapstick. Its shows are political and spectacular, with huge puppets made of paper maché and cardboard. Founded in 1963 by Peter Schumann on New York City’s Lower East Side, the theater has been based in the North East Kingdom of Vermont since the early 1970s.
For more on Bread & Puppet Theater contact Joshua Krugman jrkrugman@gmail.com or go to www.breadandpuppet.org.
Visit Next Stage Arts to purchase tickets in advance or pay at the door.