Meditation on 40 years of Bread and Puppet
Friday, November 10, 2006
Meditation on 40 years of Bread and Puppet -
Times Argus
May. 14, 2004
By David M. Kaslow
Arts Correspondent
Some books achieve their success by finely balancing meditation and contemplation. Examples include THE COMPLEAT ANGLER by Izaak Walton, and MY DINNER WITH ANDRÉ, by Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory. Such is the case, too, with REHEARSING WITH GODS: PHOTOGRAPHS AND ESSAYS ON THE BREAD AND PUPPET THEATER, by Canadian photographer Ronald T. Simon and Burlington writer Marc Estrin. In this marvelous book, the meditative photographs stimulate our inner selves, while the contemplative prose delights and exercises our intellects.
Meditation, whether practiced formally, as in Buddhist sitting or walking forms, or casually, as when we act on a "hunch" is an introspective, thought-less, essentially right-brained activity, from which percolates wisdom. On the other hand, Contemplation --whether pedantic, as in a class at school, or spontaneous, as in thoughtful problem-solving -- is an outgoing, thought-filled, predominantly left-brained activity, yielding knowledge.
Neither meditation nor contemplation occurs alone. Instead, they overlap each other and, in concert, reveal "big pictures"
REHEARSING WITH GODS provides personal glimpses into the Glover company which also has performed its social issues-based pageants internationally. Reflecting their longtime close associations with Bread and Puppet, Simon and Estrin provide intimate overviews of its more than 40-year history, tracing its 1963 birth in New York City, to its transplantation to Plainfield, to its final move to Glover. As Grace Paley, Vermont's poet laureate, writes in her foreword:
REHEARSING WITH GODS may be the first written by someone who, over the years, has been a participant, a puppeteer, a wearer of dangerous and itchy puppet heads and bodies. This may also be the first book in which text and photographs are of equal weight and beauty in thoughtfulness and importance.
The book contains eight sections, each addressing a common Bread and Puppet (indeed, universal) human archetype: Death, Fiend, Beast, Human, World, Gift, Bread, and Hope. Throughout, Bread and Puppet's adversaries include tyrannical (puppet?) governments, war, greed, hunger, poverty, environmental destruction, disease, fear, racism, and sexism.
In addition to describing some of the company's street, field, and theater programs -- including the discontinued Domestic Resurrection Circus and Pageant weekend circuses -- the book introduces us to the company's drawings, music, signs, flags. As well, REHEARSING WITH GODS acquaints us with several of Bread and Puppet's enormous trademark puppets, such as Yama, Uncle Fatso, the Garbage Men, and the Population Puppets. The result is a loving tribute to Bread and Puppetís founding couple, Peter and Elka Schumann.
Simon's contemplative photographs, such as "In Memoriam, Everett Kinsey, Circus Finale" (1990), and "Bread, The Banquet" (2001) are simply as they appear: i.e., a man playing a tuba is a man playing a tuba. Such photographs mainly communicate knowledge.
The bulk of the photographs, however, are meditative, for the most part conveying emotions and wisdom. Readers may well find themselves responding strongly to the motherly love and ambiguity in "Black Madonna, from The Banality of Evil" (1988); the "Despairing Lion, from The Pageant" (1994); and the "primal feelings depicted in over life-sized population puppets, from The Triumph of Capitalism" (1991).
Estrin's friendly, compelling words are equal to, albeit the reverse of, Simon's photographs. The essays are at once serious and playful -- no mean accomplishment. Employing a vocabulary ranging from"potchkying" (Yiddish for "dawdling") to "simulacra" (English for "a vague resemblance"), the text is not without humor:
Whatever
the weather.
we'll weather
the weather.
whether
we like it
or not.
Some of the writing summons emotional, meditative responses. Examples include an essay about the death of Bread and Puppet puppeteer Bill Dalrymple (which includes a similarly meditative text by Peter Schumann, concerning a Good King, a Dragon, and a Great Warrior); and a fulsome list of "hopes" for individuals, societies, nature, and the world.
The greater part of Estrin's text, however, is more likely to induce thoughtful, contemplative responses. Examples abound, and include a discussion of Gift-gift; and thoughts on German philosopher Ernst Bloch's book, THE PRINCIPLE OF HOPE (according to Peter Schumann,"the most important book ever written").
Like its subject, REHEARSING WITH GODS is an instrument of extravagant joy, celebration, wonder, and hope. It is a book to savor slowly, as it doubly rewards us with meditative sensuality and contemplative stimulation.
REHEARSING WITH GODS: PHOTOGRAPHS AND ESSAYS ON THE BREAD AND PUPPET THEATER by Ronald T. Simon and Marc Estrin. Chelsea Green Publishing, 2004. $35.
David M. Kaslow lives in Montpelier. He can be reached at
Copyright © 2004 Rutland Herald and Barre-Montpelier Times Argus
