>>REVIEW
10 DAYS ON EARTH
The Rink-A-Dink Inc. production of Ronnie Burkett Theatre of Marionettes
Alberta Theatre Projects
Runs until October 8
Martha Cohen Theatre (Epcor Centre)
It is appropriate that on the opening night for 10 Days on Earth’s Calgary production – Ronnie Burkett’s first puppet play to take the iconic puppeteer out of the playing area – Burkett’s presence was explicit just the same. In a scene where two child characters named Honeydog and Little Burp try to reason with a seasonally phobic rabbit, the rabbit puppet’s head turned completely around in an unplanned homage to The Exorcist. Calling on the afflicted animal to begin chanting the mantra "om," Burkett levitated the puppet to bop its head back into place, lower it back down and continue with the (abbreviated) scene. It’s transcendent puppetry, literally. What else can audiences expect from a man who has brought marionettes from a sidestage anachronism to a mainstage discipline with all the compelling pathos of flesh and blood?
When Burkett last brought his Theatre of the Marionettes to Alberta Theatre Projects’ stage, he took his audience through a bawdy house and the history of a painting in a meditation on beauty titled Provenance. In 10 Days on Earth, one of Calgary’s most famous sons (by way of Medicine Hat) has turned his eye to the concept of loneliness, with a moving account whose name alludes both to the 10 days spent before Burkett’s own adoption, and to the time that passes for the play’s protagonist – a mentally challenged man named Darell, left suddenly, but unknowingly, alone.
Having raised her son alone, reflected in a series of introductory flashbacks, Darell’s mother walks into her bedroom to die, looking first toward the sky and cautioning, "you’d better be there you son of a bitch." A single mother raising a now-middle-aged man, Ivy’s death leaves Darell alone. And yet, because of a lifetime of ingrained habit, morning and evening routines repeated throughout the play, Darell cannot understand his mother’s passing, not even able to open the door to her bedroom.
Darell’s world, filled both by his daily journey to and from work, and by the interwoven narrative of his favourite book (Honeydog and Little Burp), is one of tenuous but important connections, whether in the friendship between a fictional dog and chick, or in the daily world of a naive man. In his mother’s absence, Darell’s primary points of daily contact are his single female friend, who serves as another part of his daily routine and Lloyd, a ranting street person with a firm belief in his own divinity and the vileness of the human race. Oscillating between comic relief and grim-faced judge of humanity, Lloyd’s audience-directed rant, along with the first scene featuring Honeydog and Little Burp, are the only moments in which the show’s momentum briefly stalls. The play’s very few other characters exist only fleetingly, with Darell’s father a virtual shade, first as a flashback and later as an awkward customer at Darell’s shoeshine stand.
In most reviews, every character mentioned would be accompanied by a set of parentheses, an acknowledgement of the actor behind the act. In Burkett’s productions, however, the distinction between elements of the production doesn’t exist.
A one-man cast responsible for the creation of his script and actors, his craftsmanship pervades every aspect of the production, from the humanity of his characters to their expressively carved faces – simultaneous proof that puppetry’s magic is its ability to make us believe that a clunking piece of wood is actually a joyful son or an old woman preparing herself to die. As impressive a designer as he is a performer, Burkett’s set design is remarkable not only in its beauty, but also in its versatility – allowing him to shift his scene with a sliding wooden panel or the scrolling backdrop of Honeydog and Little Burp’s adventure while Burkett himself moves deftly above it all.
And yet, Burkett’s production also owes its beauty to the exceptional work of his lighting designer, Bill Williams, and music/sound designer Cathy Nosaty. Bathing Burkett’s set in a dappled rainbow, the abstracted lights of the street or a stark flashback spotlight, Williams’ lighting design is as vibrantly rendered as the puppets they illuminate. Add to this Nosaty’s atmospheric soundscape and the production is as striking in its execution as Burkett’s text is in its ability to create empathy for his curious creations.
In January, Burkett will be returning for the International Festival of Animated Objects, a puppetry festival where, two years ago, he first read excerpts of his then-in-progress script for 10 Days on Earth.
On the Martha Cohen stage, Burkett has created a vision of striking beauty, both in his script and in his play’s rich production – a portrait that has been written, drawn and painted with undeniable skill. Within the span of a few months, Calgary has been given the opportunity to see both the creation and the promise of further creation. The opportunity to absorb this much Burkett is simply not be missed. |
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