Caliban Deconstructed

Part of the Café-causerie — Budding creations! event

This play is grounded in Shakespeare’s Tempest. Caliban, the Indigenous slave, is a life-size puppet; Prospero is the puppeteer. With Caliban as guide, the play explores the gay meta-narrative of Shakespeare’s work, mixing his language with contemporary English, and using a Shakespearean puppet convention, the “interpreter” as a second, free-wheeling, surprising performer.

Photos

Photo: Paul Groake

Company

The Absurdists is a new company and Caliban Deconstructed is its first production. Its principal, Jeremiah Bartram, is a playwright, journalist and scholar who is exploring the range and power of both puppet and object theatre; he is also writing a book about contemporary puppetry. The play began as a one­-person show, and Bartram workshopped its opening scene at Fresh Ideas for Puppetry Day in Toronto, in June 2017.

Credits

Script: Jeremiah Bartram
Stage direction: Shawna Reiter (Clunk Puppet Lab)
Puppets: David Lane
Performance: Jake Smith
Participating Collaborators: David McLeod and Julie Malenfant