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| Bread & Puppet "Cheap Art" |
When Bread and Puppet Theatre Company began in 1963, it was a visionary amalgam of medieval street theatre, European avant garde and nascent hippie esthetic. To this founder Peter Schumann added his own love of bread and baking with the quasi liturgical sharing of bread that takes place at every B&P performance.
Over the last 55 years B&P has gone from cutting edge to dated and stuck in the sixties to being all but forgotten to now being seen as a unique artistic expression of theatre, all without ever changing their esthetic or ethos. Which, as one observer said, was probably Peter's vision all the time.
Over the years, other troupes with their roots in street performance have taken other paths. (Viz. Cirque du Soleil) One can chuckle imagining a B&P show in Vegas. Peter Schumann has managed to somehow survive this half century without changing his rigorous artistic ethic. You can call it persistence, stubbornness or just commitment but he has remained true to that vision.
Bread & Puppet eschews corporate patronage or traditional grants. They survive on voluntary contributions ...no one is ever turned away from a performance...and the sale of their "cheap art." They live as a community in Vermont and travel in the same way, cooking, eating, celebrating forever with an ever changing cast of characters. Their summer interns come literally from all over the world. It is an experience one lives through and then then moves on in an ever expanding community of support. Every performance is made possible by local cadres of volunteers where they visit.
In the end, it is the performance that keeps drawing people back. From the start, B&P has always been about analysis and critique of the present moment. They were a constant presence in the anti-Vietnam and anti-nuclear protests which helped bring them global visibility. Much like Grotowski, there is a deep understanding and use of ritual along with their own archetypal lampoon. The voice of protest shifts between almost didactic declamation to deeply moving inference. There are always complicated Rube Goldbergesque instruments and devices. And as much as Schumann is a committed humanist, his music always goes deep into traditional hymns and church music. Their 50th anniversary production, for example, wove the 1599 German "Es ist ein Ros entsprungen" throughout. The current production, The Basic Bye Byes Show, uses the late 16th century Tallis Canon, first with a song written shortly after Trump's election, but in many other ways as well.
The Basic Bye Byes, now on tour, is classic B&P. The topic is all that we are called to bid "Bye Bye" to if we are to survive. In their own words, "The Basic Bye-bye Show – a manifesto on transformation, inspired by Albrecht Dürer's apocalyptic woodcuts, Brahms 4 Serious Songs, and the daily news. BREAD & PUPPET PRESENTS: THE BASIC BYEBYE SHOW." The various scenarios reference the climate crisis, the international capital system, the newly heightened anxiety over nuclear apocalypse and in a final devastating scene, gun violence.
A giant James Madison impregnates a "Holy Cow" (read Sacred Cow) which gives birth to the Second Amendment. At one point, small school chairs are turned over, one by one. The effect is emotionally devastating. At the final conclusion, the cardboard guns are gathered and tossed in the trash. I write this only to give a slight impression of what you see.
Having Bread & Puppet live at West Park for a month or so in 2013 celebrating their 50th anniversary was a true experience of community. They have continued to return West Park as one of their New York City homes, the other being the East Village's Theatre for a New City, in a nod to their Village roots. They are yet another expression of what the Center at West Park seeks to be. (And already is.)
If they come your way, join in. And break some bread with them.
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