Traditional puppetry meets politics in 'Terrorists'

By Terry Byrne, Globe Correspondent

An evening with Bread and Puppet Theater is never just about the performance. It's about the vibe.

Peter Schumann's famed troupe has been in residence all week at the Boston Center for the Arts' Cyclorama (through tomorrow), and the cavernous hall, which has daunted other performing troupes, provides a wonderful atmosphere for Bread and Puppet's total experience. The curved Cyclorama walls are covered with an exhibit of artwork created during a residency in Israel's West Bank, as well as Schumann's exhibits "Walmart Exorcism" and "5 Excerpts From Everything Under the Sky." The company's "cheap art" is also available to purchase.

As you wander around the room, the 15-piece Boston-based Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure Society Brass Band plays spirited background music guaranteed to help shake off the frigid weather. When the audience members finally dance into their seats, an enormous Popol Vuh puppet, representing the ancient Mayan Council Book (which explains the end of the world), looms above the playing area like a fearsome giant.

Founder and artistic director Schumann has worn his politics on his sleeve for the 35 years he's led the company, and the current production, "The Battle of the Terrorists and the Horrorists" is no exception. What makes Bread and Puppet performances so engaging is Schumann's deft integration of traditional puppetry techniques with dance, comedy, music, and in-your-face political messages.

A discordant whistle signals the start of "The Terrorists and the Horrorists," and magically, an entire herd of lifesize white deer puppets rises up from the floor, each one made only of cardboard, a sheet, and tree branches and controlled by the 25 local puppeteers who are working with five Bread and Puppet performers for this week's residency. But the beautiful image has barely faded when a man in a suit and a top hat appears from the "Institute of Disaster Research" to offer a brief sample of Orwellian definitions used to justify acts committed in the name of the war on terror.

And we're off. The battle between peace and military superiority is fought before our eyes with the aid of a hapless collection of cardboard citizens. At first, the scenes are silly and obvious, like "the circus to cheer up the victims before victimizing them" and the dance of "the rise and fall of the stock market." But then Schumann's imagery turns dark, with a haunting and horrifying mimed show of one week in Palestine "under the feet of the occupier." From there we watch as the citizens are killed in a tableau represented by the sinking of a magnificently simple ship in stormy seas. Finally, that huge Popol Vuh puppet swoops down and warns us of our fate if we continue on this path, using words from an ancient Mayan text.

Schumann leavens his morality tales by sharing homemade sourdough bread smothered with aioli at show's end. In the embracing space of the Cyclorama, Bread and Puppet creates a community not always of like minds, but open to engaging in a dialogue.

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