Bread & Puppet Theater Review
Robert W. McDowell
May 27, 2009

Vermont-based theater feeds the body and diverts the mind
in “Sourdough Philosophy Circus And Pageant” 

Bread and circuses, feeding the body politic while diverting the mind from pressing political problems, is an idea at least as old as ancient Rome; and corrupt contemporary politicians who co-opt their constituents with the modern-day equivalents of “panem et circenses” are one of the principal targets of the lancet-sharp satirical pens of the Bread & Puppet Theater in SOURDOUGH PHILOSOPHY CIRCUS AND PAGEANT, an amusing amalgam of brassy band music, whimsical dance, and ham-fisted left-leaning political satire that the Glover, VT puppet theater was originally scheduled to perform out-of-doors on May 22-24 in Raleigh Little Theatre's Louise “Scottie” Stephenson Amphitheatre.

Cloudbursts before the show -- and the imminent threat of even more rain -- chased the Sunday's matinee performance inside, and the politically charged Bread & Puppet Theater skillfully adapted on the fly to the much narrower horizons of RLT's Cantey V. Sutton Main Stage. Although the banner-waving “pageant” portion of the show may have been curtailed a bit, a biblical deluge could not have dampened the exuberance of the Sourdough Philosophy Brass Band, which combined trumpet, tuba, and saxophone, with a snare drum, a big bass drum, cymbals, a tambourine, a slide whistle, and an accordion to provide spirited accompaniment for a series of satirical comedy skits -- mainly performed by white-clad comedians in chef's hats and jackets. The Rotten Idea Theater Company continued to flog the dead horse of the defunct Bush Administration as well as hold the Obama Administration's feet to the fire on such front-burner issues as illegal immigration, the federal bailout of the banks, strip-mining, and assorted other evils of capitalism.

To read the rest of this Classical Voice of North Carolina review, please go to http://cvnc.org/reviews/2009/052009/BreadPuppet.html.

SOURDOUGH PHILOSOPHY CIRCUS AND PAGEANT: http://www.raleighlittletheatre.org/performances/08-09/bread.html. BREAD & PUPPET THEATER: http://www.breadandpuppet.org/. RALEIGH LITTLE THEATRE: RALEIGH LITTLE THEATRE: http://www.raleighlittletheatre.org/. STEPHENSON AMPHITHEATRE: http://raleighlittletheatre.org/about/amphitheatre.html.

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