Moody and mysterious, Anywhere—a co-presentation by the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival and HERE’s Dream Music Puppetry program—might cast a spell on viewers, or thoroughly baffle them. Or both. Anybody who goes to see it expecting a “puppet show” is in for a surprise. It is far more somber and cerebral than what one thinks of as typical puppet fare. One of its two characters is portrayed by a human, and though it runs less than an hour, Anywhere is a complex production in terms of its human-scale scenic, lighting and sound design.
Who’s the Fool?
There are only so many ways to describe the Jessica Scott's avant-garde Ship of Fools, currently at HERE Arts Center. On the one hand, it is a unique combination of original music, puppetry, video, and live action, yet on the other it comes across as disjointed and meaningless—imagine Disney’s “It’s a Small World” born in the 1960s Haight-Ashbury. The audience is seated on a platform that moves left or right, and sometimes rotates completely, giving the performers time to set up the next vignette on the perimeter.