Bread and Puppet Theater’s “The Grasshopper Rebellion Circus,” which they performed yesterday on Cambridge Common, offered slapstick and social criticism along with “celestial grasshoppers” who come to earth “when the normal skills of jumping and uprising suffice no longer.” The performance was the final event of free 2018 Summer In The City arts in the parks series from Cambridge Arts (where I work part-time).
The Glover, Vermont, troupe’s performance of giant puppets, masks and flags criticized the federal Immigration Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), celebrated a medieval Swiss cavalry’s defeat by peasants, satirized an increasingly conservative U.S. Supreme Court (“We’re fascists now. … All your rights are going to fade. Your rallies and your protest signs won’t do a thing to change our minds”), and expressed support for the Chilean feminist student movement and “women sales workers in India who continue to fight for the right to sit down at work.”
The circus included cars melting the arctic ice shelf, a “Paradise Investigation Team,” a slapstick dance of a penguin with flamingos, a battle between cavemen and robots, and A Not-So-Evil-A-Tron for “transforming heinous evil into palatable banality.”
Skits criticized America’s gun culture, soldiers who killed more than 100 prisoners in a Gaza prison this spring, and U.S. Vice President Mike Pense for intending “systemic regulation of women’s bodily autonomy & general disregard for women’s rights.” Skits lamented war in Yemen, honored “4,645 Puerto Ricans who died after Hurricane Maria due to the negligence of authorities,” and said, “We support the demands of the national prison strikers. Abolish modern day slavery.”
Lots more Bread and Puppet coverage (including more photos) here.
Photos copyright 2018 Greg Cook.
Help Wonderland keep producing our great coverage of local arts, cultures and activisms (and our great festivals) by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.
Help Wonderland keep producing our great coverage of local arts, cultures and activisms (and our great festivals) by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.