{"id":8443,"date":"2018-09-01T13:37:58","date_gmt":"2018-09-01T17:37:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=8443"},"modified":"2018-09-01T14:24:21","modified_gmt":"2018-09-01T18:24:21","slug":"bread-puppet-circus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2018\/09\/01\/bread-puppet-circus\/","title":{"rendered":"Photos: In Bread & Puppet\u2019s \u2018Grasshopper Rebellion Circus,\u2019 Slapstick And Giant Puppets Challenge ICE, Global Warming, Capitalism"},"content":{"rendered":"

This summer\u2019s version of Bread and Puppet Theater\u2019s celebrated circus\u2014\u201cThe Grasshopper Rebellion Circus\u201d\u2014has been criticizing the federal Immigration Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), global warming and capitalism. It’s been honoring a medieval peasant uprising and remembering Puerto Ricans killed by Hurricane Maria.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Grasshopper Rebellion Circus,\u2019\u201d founder Peter Schumann has said, \u201cis a circus of ruthless critique of 6,000 years of unhuman history and the uprisings against it, from the battle of Sempach in 1386 when 1,300 peasant women and men, equipped with pitchforks and hayrakes overthrew a 4,000 strong state-of-the-art army of knights, to the current battles in which ridiculously small numbers of possibilitarians underthrow\u2014from the toes up\u2014the incompetent billionaire democracy again and again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Peter<\/a>
Peter Schumann directs a rehearsal of Bread and Puppet Theater’s “Grasshopper Rebellion Circus,” Glover, Vermont, Aug. 17, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The company, based in Glover, Vermont, is internationally celebrated for its street-theater brand of political performance art featuring live music, dance, slapstick and giant papier-m\u00e2ch\u00e9 puppets. And they\u2019re bringing the circus on tour\u2014to Cambridge Common in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Saturday, Sept. 8, at 3 p.m.; to Fort Allen Park in Portland Maine on Sunday, Sept. 9, at 4:30 p.m.; to Park Hill Orchard in Easthampton, Massachusetts, on Wednesday, Sept. 12, at 5:30 p.m.; and to Bard College Simon\u2019s Rock in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, on Thursday, Sept. 13, at 5:30 p.m. After a national tour, the company performs the circus at Theatre For the New City in New York City from Dec. 13 to 16. More details here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bread and Puppet\u2019s circus tends to change from week to week. A version performed at the company\u2019s home base in Glover, Vermont, on Sunday, Aug. 19, criticized the federal Immigration Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), celebrated a medieval Swiss cavalry\u2019s defeat by peasants, satirized an increasingly conservative U.S. Supreme Court (\u201cWe\u2019re fascists now\u201d), and expressed support for the Chilean feminist student movement, Indian workers, and striking nurses at the University of Vermont.<\/p>\n

The circus included a tribute to Aretha Franklin, a \u201cParadise Investigation Team,\u201d blue grasshoppers, a slapstick dance of a penguin with flamingos, a battle between cavemen and robots, a \u201cmiddle class\u201d torn between the \u201cCapitalist Fairy\u201d and \u201cCommunal Living Trolls,\u201d and A Not-So-Evil-A-Tron for \u201ctransforming heinous evil into palatable banality.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an act about the melting arctic ice shelf, a performer playing the late ecosocialist (and friend of the theater) Joel Kovel proclaimed: \u201cWhat other generation has been given the chance to transform the relationship between humanity and nature and given the choice to heal such an ancient wound? What a fantastic challenge!\u201d<\/p>\n

Skits lamented war in Yemen, honored \u201c4,645 Puerto Ricans who died in Hurricane Maria due to the negligence of authorities,\u201d and expressed solidarity with MOVE, the Philadelphia black liberation group that was bombed by police in 1985 and many of whose members remain in prison.<\/p>\n

The photos here, all copyright by Greg Cook, are from rehearsals from Aug. 17 to 19 and a performance of the circus on Aug. 19 in Glover, Vermont.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Help Wonderland keep producing our great coverage of local arts, cultures and activisms (and our great festivals) by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"Bread<\/a>
Bread and Puppet Theater rehearses its “Grasshopper Rebellion Circus,” Glover, Vermont, Aug. 19, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Bread<\/a>
Bread and Puppet Theater’s “Grasshopper Rebellion Circus,” Glover, Vermont, Aug. 19, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Bread<\/a>
Bread and Puppet Theater’s “Grasshopper Rebellion Circus,” Glover, Vermont, Aug. 19, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Bread<\/a>
Bread and Puppet Theater’s “Grasshopper Rebellion Circus,” Glover, Vermont, Aug. 19, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Bread<\/a>
Bread and Puppet Theater’s “Grasshopper Rebellion Circus,” Glover, Vermont, Aug. 19, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Bread<\/a>
Bread and Puppet Theater’s “Grasshopper Rebellion Circus,” Glover, Vermont, Aug. 19, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Bread<\/a>
Bread and Puppet Theater’s “Grasshopper Rebellion Circus,” Glover, Vermont, Aug. 19, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Bread<\/a>
Bread and Puppet Theater’s “Grasshopper Rebellion Circus,” Glover, Vermont, Aug. 19, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Bread<\/a>
Bread and Puppet Theater’s “Grasshopper Rebellion Circus,” Glover, Vermont, Aug. 19, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Bread<\/a>
Bread and Puppet Theater rehearses its “Grasshopper Rebellion Circus,” Glover, Vermont, Aug. 19, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Bread<\/a>
Bread and Puppet Theater rehearses its “Grasshopper Rebellion Circus,” Glover, Vermont, Aug. 19, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Bread<\/a>
Bread and Puppet Theater rehearses its “Grasshopper Rebellion Circus,” Glover, Vermont, Aug. 19, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Bread<\/a>
Bread and Puppet Theater’s “Grasshopper Rebellion Circus,” Glover, Vermont, Aug. 19, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Bread<\/a>
Bread and Puppet Theater’s “Grasshopper Rebellion Circus,” Glover, Vermont, Aug. 19, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Bread<\/a>
Bread and Puppet Theater’s “Grasshopper Rebellion Circus,” Glover, Vermont, Aug. 19, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Bread<\/a>
Bread and Puppet Theater’s “Grasshopper Rebellion Circus,” Glover, Vermont, Aug. 19, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Bread<\/a>
Bread and Puppet Theater’s “Grasshopper Rebellion Circus,” Glover, Vermont, Aug. 19, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Bread<\/a>
Bread and Puppet Theater’s “Grasshopper Rebellion Circus,” Glover, Vermont, Aug. 19, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Bread<\/a>
Bread and Puppet Theater’s “Grasshopper Rebellion Circus,” Glover, Vermont, Aug. 19, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Bread<\/a>
Bread and Puppet Theater’s “Grasshopper Rebellion Circus,” Glover, Vermont, Aug. 19, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Bread<\/a>
Bread and Puppet Theater rehearses its “Grasshopper Rebellion Circus,” Glover, Vermont, Aug. 19, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Bread<\/a>
Bread and Puppet Theater rehearses its “Grasshopper Rebellion Circus,” Glover, Vermont, Aug. 19, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Bread<\/a>
Bread and Puppet Theater’s “Grasshopper Rebellion Circus,” Glover, Vermont, Aug. 19, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This summer\u2019s version of Bread and Puppet Theater\u2019s celebrated circus\u2014\u201cThe Grasshopper Rebellion Circus\u201d\u2014has been criticizing the federal Immigration Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), global warming and capitalism. It’s been honoring a medieval peasant uprising and remembering Puerto Ricans killed by Hurricane Maria. \u201cThe Grasshopper Rebellion Circus,\u2019\u201d founder Peter Schumann has said, \u201cis a circus of ruthless […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8434,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106,108,110],"tags":[13,403,196],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8443"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8443"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8456,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8443\/revisions\/8456"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}