Tuesday, November 12th
7:00pm
Doors open at 6:30pm
Puppet show! Puppet show! Bread & Puppet Theater is landing at the Maine Irish Heritage Center in Portland for 1 night only! This tour presents a double bill, directed by Peter Schumann, crafted for this exact moment: The Possibilitarian Imperative Everything Show, followed by Gray Lady Cantata #9.
The word “possibiltarian” is a Marc Estrin translation of Robert Musil’s term “möglichkeitsmensch” from his novel The Man Without Qualities, about the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The term was invigorated by Margaret Thatcher’s remark on capitalism: “there is no alternative,” to which we respond: “there are a thousand alternatives!” Of The Possibilitarian Imperative Everything Show, director Peter Schumann reminds us that, “at a time when Freedom and Democracy slaughter babies and moms by the dozen every day and don’t even seem to have any understanding of what they are doing to the world or to themselves, we Possibilitarians, operating on the Principle of Hope, put on our boots to kick aside impossibility and declare new possibility in response to this obviously despaired situation.”
Gray Lady Cantata #9 continues a series of shows made in the 60’s and 70’s in response to the Vietnam War. This new iteration features texts from Palestinians living through the war in Gaza. With the iconic gray lady puppets from the original production moving through vignettes both dreamlike and brutal, Gray Lady Cantata #9 offers meditations on grief, war, and resistance.
As always, the shows will include puppets large and small, music, up-to-the-minute politics, and spectacles not to be missed. After the show Bread & Puppet will serve its famous sourdough rye bread with aioli, and Bread & Puppet’s “Cheap Art” – books, posters, postcards, pamphlets and banners from the Bread & Puppet Press – will be for sale.
No one turned away for lack of funds. We mean it. If you need assistance with a ticket, please email breadandpuppetreservations@gmail.com.
This production is co-presented by the Maine Irish Heritage Center and Mayo Street Arts
Photos of Gray Lady Cantata #9:
