Vermont’s Bread and Puppet Theater brought its “The Heart of the Matter Circus” to Cambridge Common on Saturday as part of its September tour of the Northeast. The perform Lawrence, Massachusetts, at 5 this evening. (See schedule below.) Admission is free. Donations are welcome.
Stilt dancers, papier-mâché beasts, and a brass band performed their raucous spectacle of protest and slapstick satire and celebration.
This circus opened with a prelude of performers with a painted landscape and low-relief clouds, a stilter as the “heart of the matter” and another stilter chiseling clouds to give life meanings that are missing.
Then the circus’ traditional opening of white-clad performers running in waving flags.
A giant blue headed puppet watched as a creepy Uncle Sam puppet with top-hatted “fossil fuel tycoons and their government collaborators” chained up performers wearing smocks printed with images of green wheat, then children dressed as superheroes in gold capes unchained them and instead defeated and chained the bad guys—a symbolic representation of the youths known as the Montana 16 who have successfully sued to stop pollution because it violates their right to a healthy environment.
A flat, black and white cardboard boat of migrants rolled on seas (blue clothing hung on long poles) as masked performers pantomimed playing tennis over them—intended as a metaphor for European indifference.
A cantestoria about “All You Excellent Kids” bringing fresh ideas to the world.
Supreme Court judges in robes and wigs marched in high stepping to rip off their robes reveal cheerleader outfits, each with a letter on the bust that together spelled “Fascist.” The judges were anti unions and abortion and LGBTQ, they gutted the clean water act, all to “take it back 100 years.”
A sinister winged puppet knocked down people dancing in a circle to represent cluster bombs dropped by the United States on neutral Laos during the Vietnam War that continue to endanger the country.
Blue and white horse puppets danced.
Yellow lions and tall figures paraded in memorial to Katharine Kean, a New York activist who supported Haiti, who died in July.
A violinist howled and played as a performer threw things out of a garbage can—shouting: “Nato puppets of empire advance towards enemy,” “Russia invades Ukraine without any provocation,” “Puppet presidents of puppet empire pour in as many expensive weapons as possible to promote peace,” “Nord Streamgas pipeline mysteriously explodes,” “Conflict solution: No negotiation.” The performer took a paper plate out of the trashcan and let it float to the ground, saying, “The people of Ukraine.”
“The despairers in spite of dancers” danced with cardboard disks painted with pastoral scenes, threw them down to the grass, retrieved them as a narrator said the dances were about seeking shelter and work permits in sanctuary cities and states, and finally the “acceptable nightmare dance,” when the paintings were flipped over to reveal black and white skeletons.
Three bears entered wearing signs labeled Russia and Nato and the third holding a bomb labeled Nuclear. The Russia and Nato bears took turns hammering on the bomb then covering their eyes as the band played the “Blue Danube Waltz.” Then the bears tangled and the bomb fell to the ground (without exploding). A group of kids labeled “World” arrived, removed the sign “nuclear” from the bomb, to reveal that it read “No war” underneath, and threw the bomb into a trash can.
A woman danced a traditional Chilean partner dance solo, waving a white handkerchief, between giant paintings of chairs to mark the 50th anniversary of the U.S. supported dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in Chile and the thousands assassinated and disappeared by the regime.
The 19th century Russian anarchist Peter Kropotkin noted cooperation in nature and shouted “Don’t compete! Competition is always injurious to the species. Practice mutual aid!” as deer and buffalo and other animals paraded by.
A rhino processed by followed by a performer holding a sign reading “83 Anti-Trans bills have passed since January.”
A man in cowboy hat asserted only two things are real: love and fossil fuel—before a giant wave (a blue tarp) swept him away.
The Rotten Idea Theater Company lampooned “American Exceptionalism” unleashing banned cluster bombs in Ukraine—until all the performers were clubbed down.
Aaron Copeland conducted the band to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the debut of his “Fanfare for the Common Man,” but then an evil Uncle Sam puppet arrived to mark the 70th anniversary of Copeland’s interrogation by Republican U.S. Senator Joseph R. McCarthy: “Are you now or have you ever been a communist? Have you ever had an abortion? Have you ever read a banned book?” A giant washer woman puppet joined performers in washer women and garbage men masks to punch out the evil Uncle Sam, then they danced.
An act mourned the 470 mass shootings in the U.S. so far in 2023.
The band came onto the stage, a performer danced with a gold flag, and workers danced to honor crews making repairs after the July flooding in Vermont.
A man waved a giant bronze flag in circles and spirals and over the audience.
Performers entered carrying flags depicting writhing yellow figures shouting “No.” The performers shouted “What is war? Who profits? Who dies?”
The circus ended, as is traditional, with white-clad performers running in waving flags as the band played “Down By The Riverside”: “I’m gonna lay down my sword and shield down by the riverside and study war no more.”
• Friday, September 1, 2023, at 6 p.m. – Hancock, VT
• Saturday, September 2, 2023, at 4 p.m. – Cambridge, MA
• Sunday, September 3, 2023, at 4 p.m. – Portland, ME
• Monday, September 4, 2023 (Labor Day), at 5 p.m. – Lawrence, MA
• Thursday, September 7, 2023, at 6 p.m. – Vernon, NJ
• Friday, September 8, 2023, at 4 and 8 p.m. – Brooklyn, NY
• Saturday, September 9, 2023, at 4 p.m. – Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
• Sunday, September 10, 2023, at 5:30 p.m. – Easthampton, MA
• Monday, September 11, 2023, at 6 p.m. – Pittsford, VT
Previously: Lots of earlier coverage of Bread and Puppet Theater.
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