GREENSBORO – Bread and Puppet of Glover came to the Highland Center for the Arts in Greensboro last Thursday evening for the first stop of its Spring Tour 2026 in Vermont, entitled “End of the World Never Minding Show and Civilization Abyss.”
Directed by Peter Schumann, it had a group of about a dozen puppeteers manipulating very imaginative large scale puppets with powerfully painted background sheets, performing six acts of dramatic scenes seriously relevant to our present historical disaster of the destruction of democracy in this country.
They began with a prologue in the form of a story about a king who was approached by a Great Warrior offering his services. Initially the King turned him away, but when a terrible Dragon invaded the land and the people were afraid, he called him back, against the warnings of his Priest and Red and Blue advisors. The Great Warrior fought and killed the Dragon, but then proceeded to kill the King, his advisors and the People. But the Great Warrior met his end in conflict with Death itself. A meaningful fable for our current trend towards total authoritarianism in this country.
Act One was called “Three Precision Life and Death Dances for the Year 2026.” A number of the painted sheets behind the players had large hands with upward pleading fingers, similar to those in paintings by the German artist Matthias Grunewald, (1480 – 1530). The puppeteers all lay down around in a frenzy. Next they each held up two dimensional paper skeletons which they used in a coordinated dance.
In Act Two, “The Civilization Abyss Upside Down Situation,” the puppeteers held their ears to the backdrop sheet and made bird song whistles, then danced and sang Hallelujah. With stage lights turned off, figures came out from the right holding flashlights and recited the preamble to the U.S. Constitution and some of the Bill of Rights. Each had a sign indicating their work, such as Baker, Nurse, Garage Man, Student and School Teacher. Then another group of puppets dressed in suits appeared, with signs like Normality, Humdrum, Nevermind and the New York Times. They milled around, marched loudly, made silly sounds and ended up being turned upside down. A figure of the Statue of Liberty entered and separated the welcoming phrase on its base, “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
Then an Uncle Sam puppet smoking a cigar came in and punched Liberty with his fist, amid strains of the National Anthem.
In the Third Act, “Sitting Mind with Revolt Screaming Chain,” the theme was Humanity versus the climate. People came in with folding chairs and did things with them in a dance, while Humanity was represented by a large head placed on one of the chains. The question was whether endless progress was possible or should we be shrinking our demands on the environment and liberating ourselves from fear’s prison. Finally Humanity’s head fell off the chain and there was a Revolution.
In Act Four, “Luxury Despair”, a sizable figure with prominent teeth covered the puppeteers with a big white sheet symbolizing snow, in reference to the people having to flee their homes in Lebanon due to Israeli attacks, while Israel continues bombing in Gaza despite having declared peace with Hamas, and thousands are being killed by the United States in Iran.
Act Five, “The Registry of the Effects of the Plague of 2026,” continues with the horrifying murder of over 160 school children in an air strike by American forces in Iran, deliberately targeted in the first day of the war, with a second attack after the initial when first responders and emergency people had arrived. If you can rationalize the killing of children you can rationalize any evil.
Puppeteers held signs saying “NO” and were followed by deer puppets that came slowly on stage in silence and exited in a moving sequence.
In Act Six, “The Futuristic Not Yet,” the players entered within a kind of float covered with red poppy flowers, symbolizing a deep hope that this current nightmare will end.
Bread and Puppet will continue their Spring Tour in April around the state. Visit https://breadandpuppet.org/ for information.
David K. Rodgers
David K. Rodgers is a writer, mason and card carrying dilettante, who dabbles and babbles in art. He has lived in East Craftsbury for the past 40 years.
