Puppets perfect happiness
On the eve of the year 2000, back when everybody thought the world was going to end because of Y2K, a group of creatives holed up at a southern Alberta ranch.
They came together for mutual protection against “cannibal zombie gangs.” But instead of seeing the end of civilization, they created a new one made entirely of puppets.
The Old Trout Puppet Workshop was founded by a group of old friends with a unique array of skills. One person did physical theatre and made masks, another was a sculptor, one was a carpenter and Judd Palmer was a writer and illustrator.
“There’s something strange and beautiful about puppets,” Palmer said. “You sort of get to do everything. You’re making music and theatre and sculpture and even dance, for crying out loud.”
The company’s first show was performed in an old bunkhouse for an audience of cowboys and Hutterites.
“We haven’t been the same since, and I’m not sure that the cowboys or Hutterites have been either,” said Palmer.
With a mandate to dominate the world through puppetry, Old Trout created a repertoire of shows and performed all over North America and Europe.
The company’s latest, Ignorance, is part of Persephone Theatre’s Deep End series. The show is about the evolution of happiness.
“The show asks the big questions. What is happiness? Where does it come from? Where does it go? But this show pretty much answers all those questions. If you would like to be more happy then this is the show for you. It will solve your life’s problems,” said Palmer.
Old Trout was founded on collaboration, which shows in Ignorance. Palmer is the voice of the narrator and listed as the director, but is quick to point out that everyone contributed to the play’s direction.
“In some kind of Marxist, hippie sense, we eschewed hierarchy,” he said.
The artists came together to create the show, but they also invited the public to join in on the process online.
The topic struck a chord with people and started a conversation. Though they weren’t going to be held to any particular ideas suggested by the public, the company learned a lot from the process. One of the factoids Palmer found most interesting was the idea that fertility goddess statues were one of the first human artistic endeavours. Some of them even had hinged joints, proof that puppets have been part of human history for millenniums.
Some of the puppets Old Trout created for Ignorance were made to look like they were created by cave people, with prehistoric styling thanks to stones, bits of bone and tattered hides.
They are the newest additions to a Calgary warehouse space brimming — Raiders of the Lost Ark-style — with a spectacular array of creatures of all shapes and sizes.
“The warehouse is jammed to the rafters with puppets and there’s no room to move around anymore,” said Palmer.
The dream is to one day have a museum to display them. Old Trout will get one step closer to that this summer with a retrospective exhibition of their puppets in Lyon, France.
Ignorance plays at the Broadway Theatre today through Sunday.