~~ The Old Trouts rec- reate death scenes using puppets. TONY SU photo ~~ .~ Dead puppets allay fear ~® By TONY SU YS ‘ ure your fear of death by watching gruesome murder- ous acts committed by pup- ; pets in Famous Puppet y Death Scenes at the York Theatre starting this week. The first time the play arrived in Vancouver was during the 2006 PuSh International Performing Arts Festi- val. It was a smash success and it’s been on tour on and off ever since. Judd Palmer, one of the co-founders of The Old Trouts, the group that put the production together, said the group collaboratively comes together and they put the show together. “[We’re] an odd group,” Palmer said. “We're a creation group with a weird brand of humour.” The idea didn’t happen overnight, said Palmer. The famous puppet death scene was originally from one of the team’s first family-friendly show- ings. According to him, simply killing fe ’ J puppets on stage was from an orig- inal chil- dren’s d iM. book, before Disney had its way with it. “We did a version of Pinocchio, but it was the original by [Carlo] Collodi,” Palmer said. “The original, Jiminy Cricket, shows up and pesters Pinoc- chio and Pinocchio kills him.” They did not expect the kind of reac- tion they got during the murder scene. The Old Trouts stumbled on their greatest success. People enjoyed watching puppets getting murdered. For the next play, the team got rid of the in-depth plot and Kept in the best part: the killing. “The first hammer blow, everybody’s shocked,” he said. “The next hammer blow, they started to nervously laugh, then the next they start to really laugh.” All the characters in the show are original.The show may not be suitable for all ages, Palmer said, but he knows children will love it. “Children love violence against pup- pets, they will lose their minds with joy,” Palmer said. Ellie O’Day, The Cultch’s publicist said the show is suitable for ages 10 and up. The show ends on April 19. Calgary-based puppet theatre company to perform in Vancouver TONY SU photo Pityu Kenderes, puppeteer with The Old Trouts. A SYN-ful cabaret The Lovers Cabaret is pre- senting a dance show on five goddesses of sins and their mortal adventure By BRYAN Mc GOVERN show only to find a goddess taking the drink out of your hand. The Lovers Cabaret is producing an intimate cabaret show, SYN, as part of their noir series. Written by a group of five writers, the show is based on a unique plot of five goddesses of sins who sneak into the real world for a night. The show premiers at The Fox Cabaret April 1. Taking the concept of five sin god- desses breaking into the real world and making it a practical dance took a lot of experimentation, according to chore- ographer and performer Portia Favro. “The idea we started with has shift- ed many times,” Favro said. The five dancers will be connected through a big blue cloth according to Favro, an- other concept introduced in the fum- bling of ideas for the show. “We cater to introducing the art to different people,” said Vanessa Young, [ees a night out at a late night co-writer and performer. “We're aiming for a smaller crowd because we do want that more intimate cabaret feel so that we can interact more with the audience.” Favro, who’s playing the Goddess of lust in the show, said she hopes to get an audience who aren’t mostly cabaret fans because according to her they are the most fun due to their lack of aware- ness on the interaction. “Tam probably going to be touching people,” said Favro who, as a perform- er, doesn’t regularly do that. She said this allows her to explore the boundar- ies of her comfort zone. “T don’t usually perform in a lot of the shows but the noir series are a bit smaller so it gives me the opportunity to produce and perform, which is al- ways fun and busy,” said Young who is playing role of the Goddess of envy. Favro said working with five of her friends allows her to work with people who trust her vision. The emphasis on audience interac- tion is an attempt for the dancers to break the fourth wall, which means fully acknowledging the show is a play and there’s an audience watching it. According to Favro that’s what makes SYN a different type of show. THE LOVERS CABARET SUBMITTED photo SYN will have an intimate cabaret feel as dancers break the fourth wall. Thriller novel by Raymond Chandler to get a roman- tic, film-like twist for its theatrical version By REBECCA PHAIR the theatrical adaptation of a 1940’s crime thriller classic. The Arts Club Theatre Company is featuring Aaron Bushkowsky’s adapta- tion of Farewell, My Lovely, a novel written by Raymond Chandler, at the Granville Island Stage between April 2 and May 2. Playwright Bushkowsky teamed up with director Craig Hall to capture the essence of a film noir play with a ro- mantic and film-like twist. “THall] and I saw eye-to-eye on ev- erything and we had a lot of room to be creative,” Bushkowsky said. Set in 1941 Los Angeles, the play fol- lows detective Phillip Marlowe played by Graham Percy in his investigation to find a man’s missing girlfriend, Velma Valento. As the play unfolds however the Gi: Island is playing host to SUBMITTED photo Lead actor Graham Percy and Lucia Frangione, during a show of Farewell, My Lovely. Arts Club presents 40s thriller 66 ...chere are plot. three fan- “It’s about relationships because leading femme fatales, who according to Bushkowsky, are women that are in- volved with men with guns, shape a more romantic theme throughout the there’s three fantastically strong wom- tas tically en in the play and each one of them strong could be the woman Marlowe is look- ° ing for,” Bushkowsky said. women tn The Arts Club Theatre features the play plays at three venues, Stanley Indus- trial Alliance Stage, Granville Island AARON Stage and Revue Stage. BUSHKOWSKY But Peter Wickham, Arts Club The- PLAYWRIGHT atre season’s ticket holder, is most ex- gden- cited for Farewell, My Lovely. “This will be my first Aaron Bush- é kowsky production, but one of my fa- vourite genres in theatre is murder mystery,” he said. “T also have a deep =S interest in history, yo espe- S : > a cially a the 30s, 40s and 50s eras, so [’'m very much excited to watch this play,” Wickham said.