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created and directed by Ronnie Burkett

Ronnie Burkett Theatre of Marionettes, Berkeley Street Theatre, 26 Berkeley Street, Toronto

February 28–April 5, 2026

Esme: “Of course, it doesn’t make sense … it’s Shakespeare!”

Though an ardent fan of Ronnie Burkett, I have somehow managed never to see any of his Daisy Theatre shows until now; for Little Willy currently being present at Canadian Stage’s Berkeley Street Theatre counts as a Daisy Theatre show. Unlike fully-scripted shows like Provenance (2003) or Wonderful Joe (2024), The Daisy Theatre shows, beginning with The Daisy Theatre in 2013, are fully improvised. In Little Dickens (2017) the company of the Daisy Theatre attempted to stage Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. Now in Little Willy, the company attempts to stage Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The results are hilarious – all the more so since the company is so full of eccentrics that it never manages to overcome internal conflicts to get to the play itself. As usual, Burkett proves himself an inimitable master marionettist capable of taking his show in any direction he fancies.

While the object of Little Willy is the Daisy Theatre’s first-ever attempt to stage Shakespeare, the show is really in the form of a cabaret combining monologues, dialogue, song, dance, comedy and audience participation. As a sign of the irreverent tone of what is to come, the show begins with burlesque star Dolly Wiggler dressed in an elaborate Elizabethan outfit of which she then proceeds to divest herself piece by piece. Amusing and grotesque as this is (Are we meant to be aroused by puppet nudity?), it’s impossible not to appreciate the imagination and immense ingenuity that have gone in to making this brief sequence possible. Just think of engineering puppet costumes, as Kim Crossley has done, that can be removed despite all the marionette’s strings.

As we discover, the casting has not even been done for R&J. A lineup of would-be Juliets besiege harried theatre manager Enoch and attack each other. Debbie the Witch can’t be cast because of the profane language her every appearance elicits. Cue her second entrance and the audience response. An ancient brother and sister pair who have been touring the provinces for 60 years would be happy to play the star-cross’d lovers, except that Enoch deems them too old. Daisy Theatre regular, the imperious Esme Massengill, a scary caricature of Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard (1950), insists on playing Juliet and is so belligerent that Enoch gives in.

Her accession to the role culminates when she rehearses the balcony scene with none other than William Shakespeare himself and the two get into a furious debate over the meaning of Juliet’s line, “Wherefore art thou Romeo”. Esme, who shouts down the Bard, insists that “wherefore” means “where” despite his insistence to the contrary.

Some characters are content to play other roles. The hypermasculine Major General Leslie Fuqwar, who somehow has a taste for women’s clothing, thinks he would make a fine Lord Capulet. The pleasingly plump Mrs. Edna Rural is happy to be chosen to play the Nurse but worries that she has no medical training.

Despite all its accumulation of raucous, off-colour moments, the show’s most memorable scenes are its quietest. As the balding, middle-aged Enoch discusses his troubles in casting the show with the donkey-voiced librarian Ines, we see a love story that defies convention, here the convention of young love, take form to become a more touching portrayal of budding love than in the Shakespeare’s play.

Burkett allows Edna Rural to stop the show, having her sit clad in her housedress in an over-stuffed chair to tell us in great detail how she suddenly made the transition from innocent virgin to dutiful wife in a matter of days and stayed true to her husband until his death 63 years later. Burkett brings such a mixture of naïveté, self-deprecation and folksy charm to Edna’s monologue and such naturalness to her movements that we instantly regard her not as a marionette but a real person.

The cast also includes the audience favourite Schnitzel, a fairy without wings, who looks like a nonbinary, child-sized, 1920s-style imp with a flower growing out of their head. He tells Enoch he would like to play both Romeo and Juliet. The sincerity of Schnitzel’s account of the balcony scene is so affecting that it somehow seems natural for one person to play both roles.

Burkett’s play also includes audience participation. One instance requires a person to operate the fantastically carved, nine-member Max Blümchen Orchestrale pit band constructed by Eric James Ball with puppets sculpted by Noreen Young. Turning a crank causes the whimsically imagined musicians to “play” their instruments.

Two men chosen from the audience are asked to operate the backup dancers for the foul-mouthed Rosemary Focaccia, whom Enoch has chosen as part of the party scene where Romeo and Juliet meet. The scene never gets to their meeting. I’ve that in The Daisy Theatre Burkett allowed audience members on the bridge with him to manipulate marionettes, but this is the first time I’ve actually witnessed it.

Uproarious as well as cringeworthy is the scene where a man chosen from the audience is asked to play the deceased Romeo in the tomb scene while the ancient would-be Juliet mentioned above repeats Juliet’s lamentation and death over the body of the human Romeo. One wonders if there ought to be an intimacy coordinator for human/puppet given how affectionate the elderly Juliet becomes.

Little Willy by its very nature is not as tight a show as Burkett’s best-known puppet plays. Burkett relies on stage-manager Crystal Salverda to remind him of his place and to produce whatever sound or music effects he desires at the moment. Part of the humour of the show comes from Burkett’s own commentary on his performance, as when, on opening night, he chose the wrong voice for Shakespeare and commented that now he would be stuck with it for the whole show. (He wasn’t.)

Burkett began the Daisy Theatre shows as pure fun and that is exactly what they are. Burkett employs more than 30 marionettes in the course of the show and plays them with the same dexterity as organist would his instrument, instantly changing registers and operating the marionette controls like keys. Burkett has already been recognized as a national treasure. If you have seen him before you will certainly rush to see him while he is in town. If you love theatre and haven’t seen him before, it’s time to remedy that oversight as soon as possible.

Christopher Hoile

Photos: Ronnie Burkett and his marionettes; Schnitzel and Shakespeare; Edna Rural. © 2026 Dahlia Katz.

For tickets visit: www.canadianstage.com.