STEP 2 REVIEW
Although Jim Henson created the Muppets, he always shared the credit with his collaborator Frank Oz, better known as the voice of Bert, Miss Piggy, Cookie Monster, and many other Muppets. “Frank is the one who makes the Muppets funny,” Henson would say. And he was not being unduly modest, for he recognized that the success of the Muppets was due not just to their comical appearance, but also to the witty way they were animated. No matter how cleverly constructed a puppet is, it still needs an interesting personality if it’s going to entertain an audience. As any actor knows, a costume never gives a great performance. The Chi-Town Puppet Theatre demonstrates the truth of this with two shows running in repertory at the Saturday/Sunday Puppet Theatre at Bailiwick.
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The puppets in both shows are attractive. Roscoe, the first character to appear in Step 2 Review, is a little man, about three-quarters life size, who wears a red clown nose and a little derby held on with Velcro. Edwin Owl, who follows him, has large eyes that blink. And Thea the Mermaid is a cartoonish figure with a mouth that opens into a gaping cavern when she sings. In Eagle Feather, which alternates with Step 2 Review, the puppets have striking faces that resemble the primitive masks Picasso incorporated into Les demoiselles d’Avignon. These puppets are based on the work of contemporary Native American artists, including Daphne Odjig, whose trademark is cubist renderings of traditional Indian designs.
The staging of the story adds to its appeal. The forest trees are made out of strips of cloth that are pulled up through a hole in the floor of the puppet stage and attached to a wire overhead. The mountain is a sheet that stretches up toward cutout clouds that float by. And the wild animals in the boy’s nightmare are depicted by ingenious cartoon figures fashioned out of simple white wire.
