Theater Review: Gogol Project

To watch the Rogue Artists Ensemble in performance of “Gogol Project” is to rabidly savor each spoken word, mute turn of the eye and flick of the wrist for fear that you’ll miss one moment of this rare wonder.

To see it is to marvel at the display of skillful puppetry, the ingeniously crafted masks, the use of modern technology which, when weaved together, seamlessly tell three of 19th-century Russian writer Nikolai Gogol’s short stories on the stage.

The interwoven adaptation of the three stories “Diary of a Madman,” “The Overcoat” and “The Nose,” tells of clock-keeper Aksenty (Ben Messmer)’s steady fall to madness, poor rags-wearing Akaky (Kristopher LeeBicknell)’s debacle with the overcoat he obtains with hard-earned savings and the self-important Kovalev (Tom Ashworth)’s loss of his nose.

Written by playwright and public radio correspondent Kitty Felde in a Rogues commission directed by Sean T. Cawelti, “Gogol Project” runs until Nov. 1 in the 99-seat Bootleg Theater, known for its embrace of bold, artistic innovation and the avant-garde.

“Project” may be far out, but it is anything but inaccessible.

Scenes of the gigantic nose (Kristopher Lee Bicknell) marching into entrance on its skinny human legs like a prince, and hefty Madame Magda (Estela Garcia) tumbling head-over-heels to her exit as if wind-blown in a Buster Keaton film bring to mind a mixture of the grotesque carnival comedy of mimes and clowns. Such absurd sketches pay endearing homage to full body-suit costumes in current-day shows such as Saturday Night Live.

The brilliant puppet-work sometimes recalls the painted wooden marionettes of an earlier era, other times the cheeky naivete of Sesame Street and the Muppets. You could call it puppets for adults, but unlike Avenue Q that derived its novelty from being naughty, “Gogol Project” shocks and thrills by the pure prowess of its imaginative workings, the profusion of creative toil and talent that really makes adults giddy, including shadow puppetry that plays out like old cartoons on a screen.

At first the stories seem simple and fable-like, with moral warnings to issue, with characters that are but caricatures, half-masked and moving as if they too have someone pulling on their strings. Staunchly unsentimental, there’s a deliberate artificiality to the look and feel of the show that honors high stylization.

Interspersed in the deeply satiric production are intensely arresting scenes, when the music (Ego Plum) heightens with a whimsical, fantastical choreography that reveals a little more sentiment and humanizes the half-puppet figures. These moments, which seem suspended in time, take the show beyond mere wacky greatness.

Perhaps in fitting irony, pet dogs used in the show (manipulated as puppets) are the most humanized creatures, always speaking in earnest.

The pair delivers a love ballad in a memorable number ““ and the use of glitter-and-cardboard-cutout clouds and rainbows have never been more effective, or affecting.

Although the more predictable use of digital media such as for an animated clock face did less to push the boundaries, the flurry of digitally projected snowflakes is a harsher, updated alternative to the romantic emissions of confetti by a snow machine.

Don’t expect the norm, as the Rogues are not so much actors, puppeteers, costumes or puppets, as they are multidisciplinary artists who have crafted a cohesive work that can’t be reduced into conventional parts. The lines have been smudged. Prepare to be giddy.

-Erica Zhang, A&E contributor.

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