February 17-23, 2005

artpicks

Make Way for Duckling

by Juliet Fletcher

theater

"When you're doing things for young audiences and their parents, seven years is a whole generation," laughs Robert Smythe. It's that long since his company, Mum Puppettheatre, first staged Ugly Duckling and Other Stories, which returns to its boards this weekend. "When movies come out, we love to see them again. This season, the ballet has brought back a Jerome Robbins piece, and it's fantastic. In theater we say, if we did it once, we never get to do it again, and I don't like that."

Ugly Duckling looks a great deal to the past. Not only does it reimagine some of the world's classic fables and narratives with wordless performance and found objects, but it reaches into Mum's own history to do so. Heads and Tails, the company's first show, included a tale called "The Travellers and the Bear." That same bear, says Smythe, now stars in the telling of "The Hermit and The Bear," a staging of a fable by the Russian poet Ivan Krylov. Wow, that's real star power. "Well, he's more like European bears than a teddy bear. Comparisons have been made to Churchill."

So, for a puppet company, isn't the temptation to remount a show overwhelming? After all, you have the characters all built and ready to go. "Puppets are not automatons," explains Smythe, "they're not things you can wind up and start." Moreover, a whole new show can result from new sets of hands: Two first-time Mum performers with movement backgrounds, Robert T. DaPonte and Nako Adodoadji, join the cast. Smythe looks forward to seeing the mother duck of the titular tale recreated with a feather duster. And what ugly-yet-adorable object will take the prestigious lead? In a show full of past inspiration, that's one surprise best kept fresh.

Ugly Duckling and Other Stories, Sat., Feb. 19, 12, 2 and 4 p.m. and Sun., Feb. 20, 2 and 4 p.m., through March 13, $15, Mum Puppettheatre, 115 Arch St., 215-925-7686.