Famous Puppet Death Scenes
Presented by The Old Trout Puppet Workshop
One of the “Old Trouts”, as they are known, is a graduate of the Department of Theatre—company member and co-founder Peter Balkwill. He and his fellow trouts will be featured in the department’s annual “Spotlight on Alumni.” Victoria audiences have seen the Alberta based company and inventive wildly visual puppet theatre most recently with The Unlikely Birth of Istvan and, last season, The Last Supper of Antonin Carême for the Phoenix Theatre, they will create a new world premiere production.
The show is a collection of short pieces which represent the collected death scenes from a (fictional) canon of famous puppet shows through history; each one is presented as if it is a scene from a real show, radically expurgated, so that we are seeing only the last moment of a main or sub-character. The broader plot of the shows from which they have been derived is left up to the imagination of the audience; the effect, we hope, is like viewing a painting in a gallery, finding an old photograph, or being parachuted into a four-hour-long opera, just at the climactic bit.
Famous Puppet Death Scenes (PDF)
Box Office
January 31 – February 4, 2006
Previews: Jan. 28 & 30 at 8 pm ($5 after 5 pm)
Evening performances: Jan. 31 and Feb. 1, 2, 3 and 4 at 8 pm
Matinee: Feb. 4 at 2 pm
Pre-Show Lecture: Feb. 3 at 7 pm (Free to the public)
Seating Plan: Roger Bishop Theatre
Media Reviews
“Famous Puppet Death Scenes a brilliantly strange experience…refresh your imagination and prepare to enjoy one of the strangest and most compelling performances of the year.”
– Monday Magazine
Show Dates
January 31 – February 4, 2006
Previews: Jan. 28 & 30 at 8 pm ($5 after 5 pm)
Evening performances: Jan. 31 and Feb. 1, 2, 3 and 4 at 8 pm
Matinee: Feb. 4 at 2 pm
Pre-Show Lecture: Feb. 3 at 7 pm (Free to the public)
Seating Plan: Roger Bishop Theatre
Cast & Creative
Created by: Peter Balkwill, Don Brinsmead, Bobby Hall, Pityu Kenderes, Judd Palmer, and Stephen Pearce
Featuring: Peter Balkwill, Don Brinsmead, Pityu Kenderes, and Judd Palmer
Directed by: Tim Sutherland
Technical Direction: Bobby Hall
Costumes: Jen Gareau and Sarah Malik
Lighting Design: Cimmeron Meyer
Sound Design: Mike Rinaldi
Trout Administrator: Donna Kwan
Additional Production: Marilyn Palmer, Dawn Bryan, Georgia Houston, Jimmy, Davidge, and Karen Walker
Produced: Grant Burns