Reviews 2005
Reviews 2005
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created by Raymond Bobgan, Tannis Kowalchuk and Ker Wells, directed by Raymond Bobgan
Number Eleven Theatre, The Theatre Centre, Toronto
April 22-May 8, 2005
Coming to Toronto via Off Broadway, The Confessions of Punch and Judy purports to be an updating of the infamous English puppet plays that had been popular with children and adults from at least the 17th century into the 20th. These plays featured the grotesque figure of Punch, who beat his nagging wife Judy, sometimes to death. Given the subject of abuser and abused, one might expect something darker and more violent than the bright, non-threatening show the three creators have made.
The play alternates naturalistic scenes of Punch (Ker Wells) and Judy (Tannis Kowalchuk) acting like an ordinary human couple who frequently get on each other nerves with highly stylized scenes of puppet-like combat, mime, vaudeville and story-telling. The intent seems to be to demonstrate that the much-decried violence of Punch and Judy puppet shows actually lies just below the surface in everyday male-female interactions. A dose of politically correct revisionism makes both Punch and Judy equally responsible for what happens.
Kowalchuk and Wells are clearly more at home with physical theatre--the more extreme the better--than with naturalism. Their voices are dull as "real" people, but their bodies in mime and dance ripple with vitality.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2005-04-28.
Photo: Tannis Kowalchuk and Ker Wells. ©Raimundo.
2005-04-28
The Confessions of Punch and Judy