O FRABJOUS DAY!
Trying to make sense of Jabberwocky
In theatre as in life, there are things that seem like a good idea at the time. Jabberwocky, from Calgary’s Old Trout Puppet Workshop, must have been one.
Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky is a nonsense poem that Carroll included in Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, his 1871 sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alice finds the poem written backwards, holds it up to a mirror and reads:
“’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves/Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:/All mimsy were the borogoves,/And the mome raths outgrabe.” A father warns his son, “Beware the Jabberwock!” Ignoring dad’s advice, the son takes “his vorpal sword in hand,” goes on a quest to kill the terrible monster and does. “O frabjous day!” chortles the father. “Callooh! Callay!”
Despite the semblance of a plot, Alice is completely puzzled. Not so the Trouts, who flesh out the poem and its made-up words with characters and a storyline but no dialogue, creating their own nonsense world out of Carroll’s.
As they’ve shown in previous visits to The Cultch, the Trouts’ concept of puppetry is eclectic. The characters here range from two-dimensional cardboard cutouts held by the four actors, to kid-size puppets manipulated by the actors while rolling along on wheeled platforms, to the actors themselves in masks (Nicolas Di Gaetano, Teddy Ivanova, Pityu Kenderes, and Sebastian Kroon).
Their characters, for no apparent reason, are rabbits.
The storyline involves dad bunny leaving domestic life with sword and armour, coming home defeated, and kid rabbit taking up the challenge but maybe being co-opted (I’m reaching here) by the contingencies of urban life and the temptations of domesticity. Or not.
The style of the show is based partly on Victorian models: toy
Without dialogue we get a silent filmlike cartoon clown show, with Jonathan Lewis’ lively and elaborate sound design filling the sonic space.
theatres made of cardboard, and scrolling panoramas. Most of the colourful set pieces the actors drag on and off are painted cardboard, and settings are indicated by painted canvas scrolls the actors change by turning handcranks on stage.
Without dialogue we get a silent film-like cartoon clown show, with Jonathan Lewis’ lively and elaborate sound design filling the sonic space.
A few sequences resonated with me: a clever visual composition where the kid rabbit watches mom and dad bunny having sex; a surprising scene at kid rabbit’s grad dance; a recurring bully bunny who torments our hero.
Jabberwocky aims at adults rather than kids, and a couple of moments seem inspired by Monty Python — a giant hammer comes down on a cardboard creature, an actor dressed as a sperm cell does a silly dance. But mostly it feels like a long, relatively sophisticated high school skit.
Carroll’s poem totals 28 lines. The Old Trouts’ play runs for 70 minutes. Collectively created by the company, Jabberwocky has also been collectively directed. And it shows.
Still, the actors all have a good time and the opening night audience, although pretty quiet throughout, cheered at the end. The Trouts have international cred and the show goes on from here to Spain and France.
So, maybe I’m missing something when I say, “Beware the Jabberwock.”