Bread and Puppet Theater performed its “Apocalypse Defiance Circus” at its home base in Glover, Vermont, on Aug. 28 as it prepared to take the show on a national tour.
The show offers dancing horses and rats and trees, slapstick comedy, singing, a live band, satire, and the theater’s iconic giant puppets. It calls for police reform (a policeman-clown hollers “I’m not a bad apple!”) and reparations for Haiti. It accuses Hannaford of being unfair to farm workers. It critiques the British government for ordering the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States for reporting on U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghansitan. It mourns Israeli bombing of Palestinians in Gaza. It honors Archbishop Oscar Romero who was murderd in 1980 in El Salvador. Nurses battle grim reapers in an act critiquing lack of safety in hospitals during covid. In one satirical act, after the U.S. Supreme Court bars circuses (by a 6 to 3 vote), the Bread and Puppet Circus responds with ferocious tigers that devour the radical right-wing justices.
As part of its fall cross country tour , Bread and Puppet is scheduled to perform the Circus on Cambridge Common on Sunday, Sept. 4, at 4 p.m.; at the Bread & Roses Labor Heritage Festival on Lawrence Common, Lawrence, Massachusetts, on Monday, Sept. 5, at 4:15 p.m.; at the Emery Community Arts Center at the University of Maine at Farmington on Friday, Sept. 9, at 8 p.m.; at Fort Allen Park in Portland, Maine, on Saturday, Sept. 10, at 4 p.m.; and at Park Hill Orchard in Easthampton, Massachusetts, on Sunday, Sept. 11, at 6 p.m. The tour travels all the way to Oregon and back through December 2022.
If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon . And sign up for our free, occasional newsletter so that you don’t miss any of our reporting. (All content ©Greg Cook 2022 or the respective creators.)
Bread and Puppet Theater performs its “Apocalypse Defiance Circus” in Glover, Vermont, Aug. 28, 2022. (© Greg Cook photo) Bread and Puppet Theater performs its “Apocalypse Defiance Circus” in Glover, Vermont, Aug. 28, 2022. (© Greg Cook photo) Bread and Puppet Theater performs its “Apocalypse Defiance Circus” in Glover, Vermont, Aug. 28, 2022. (© Greg Cook photo) Bread and Puppet Theater performs its “Apocalypse Defiance Circus” in Glover, Vermont, Aug. 28, 2022. (© Greg Cook photo) Bread and Puppet Theater performs its “Apocalypse Defiance Circus” in Glover, Vermont, Aug. 28, 2022. (© Greg Cook photo) Bread and Puppet Theater performs its “Apocalypse Defiance Circus” in Glover, Vermont, Aug. 28, 2022. (© Greg Cook photo) Bread and Puppet Theater’s act about Israeli attacks on Palestinians in Gaza during its “Apocalypse Defiance Circus” in Glover, Vermont, Aug. 28, 2022. (© Greg Cook photo) Bread and Puppet Theater performs an act about British government ordering the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States to face spying charges. Part of its “Apocalypse Defiance Circus” in Glover, Vermont, Aug. 28, 2022. (© Greg Cook photo) Bread and Puppet Theater performs an act critiquing poor treatment of farm workers. Part of its “Apocalypse Defiance Circus” in Glover, Vermont, Aug. 28, 2022. (© Greg Cook photo) Bread and Puppet Theater’s act about the 1980 murder of Archbishop Oscar Romero in El Salvador. Part its “Apocalypse Defiance Circus” in Glover, Vermont, Aug. 28, 2022. (© Greg Cook photo) Bread and Puppet Theater performs its “Apocalypse Defiance Circus” in Glover, Vermont, Aug. 28, 2022. (© Greg Cook photo) Bread and Puppet Theater’s act calling for reparations for Haiti. Part its “Apocalypse Defiance Circus” in Glover, Vermont, Aug. 28, 2022. (© Greg Cook photo) Bread and Puppet Theater’s act calling for reparations for Haiti. Part its “Apocalypse Defiance Circus” in Glover, Vermont, Aug. 28, 2022. (© Greg Cook photo) Crowd arrives to watch Bread and Puppet Theater’s “Apocalypse Defiance Circus” in Glover, Vermont, Aug. 28, 2022. (© Greg Cook photo) Peter Schumann directs Bread and Puppet Theater’s rehearsal of its “Apocalypse Defiance Circus” in Glover, Vermont, Aug. 27, 2022. (© Greg Cook photo) Bread and Puppet Theater rehearses its “Apocalypse Defiance Circus” in Glover, Vermont, Aug. 27, 2022. (© Greg Cook photo) Rehearsal for Bread and Puppet Theater’s “Apocalypse Defiance Circus” in Glover, Vermont, Aug. 28, 2022. (© Greg Cook photo) Bread and Puppet Theater rehearses an act objecting to the radically right-wing U.S. Supreme Court during its “Apocalypse Defiance Circus” in Glover, Vermont, Aug. 28, 2022. (© Greg Cook photo) Bread and Puppet Theater rehearses an act objecting to the radically right-wing U.S. Supreme Court during its “Apocalypse Defiance Circus” in Glover, Vermont, Aug. 27, 2022. (© Greg Cook photo) Bread and Puppet Theater rehearses an act objecting to the radically right-wing U.S. Supreme Court during its “Apocalypse Defiance Circus” in Glover, Vermont, Aug. 28, 2022. (© Greg Cook photo) Bread and Puppet Theater rehearses its “Apocalypse Defiance Circus” in Glover, Vermont, Aug. 27, 2022. (© Greg Cook photo) Bread and Puppet Theater rehearses an act critiquing poor treatment of farm workers. Part of its “Apocalypse Defiance Circus” in Glover, Vermont, Aug. 27, 2022. (© Greg Cook photo) Peter Schumann directs Bread and Puppet Theater’s act about Israeli attacks on Palestinians in Gaza during a rehearsal of its “Apocalypse Defiance Circus” in Glover, Vermont, Aug. 28, 2022. (© Greg Cook photo) Bread and Puppet Theater rehearses an act supporting reproductive rights that was later cut from its “Apocalypse Defiance Circus” in Glover, Vermont, Aug. 27, 2022. (© Greg Cook photo) Bread and Puppet Theater rehearses its act about the 1980 murder of Archbishop Oscar Romero in El Salvador. Part its “Apocalypse Defiance Circus” in Glover, Vermont, Aug. 27, 2022. (© Greg Cook photo) Peter Schumann directs Bread and Puppet Theater’s rehearsal of its act about the 1980 murder of Archbishop Oscar Romero in El Salvador. Part its “Apocalypse Defiance Circus” in Glover, Vermont, Aug. 27, 2022. (© Greg Cook photo) Bread and Puppet Theater rehearses its act about the 1980 murder of Archbishop Oscar Romero in El Salvador. Part its “Apocalypse Defiance Circus” in Glover, Vermont, Aug. 27, 2022. (© Greg Cook photo) Crowd arrives to watch Bread and Puppet Theater’s “Apocalypse Defiance Circus” in Glover, Vermont, Aug. 28, 2022. (© Greg Cook photo) Rehearsal for Bread and Puppet Theater’s “Apocalypse Defiance Circus” in Glover, Vermont, Aug. 28, 2022. (© Greg Cook photo) If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon . And sign up for our free, occasional newsletter so that you don’t miss any of our reporting. (All content ©Greg Cook 2022 or the respective creators.)
