How Do You Do – Ingrid Hansen from Michael Millard on Vimeo.
If you’re like me you might believe a puppet show consists of articulated wooden dolls manipulated by strings and sticks controlled by an evil puppet master. Actually my first introduction to the world of puppetry was when I turned five. McDonald’s had issued plastic hand puppets of their McDonaldland characters, (a blatant ripoff of H.R. Pufnstuf). My buddy garth gave Ronald a finger boner and sodomized Mayor McCheese until I snorted rootbeer through my nose.
Little Orange Man is nothing like that nor is it anything you would expect from a puppet show. Why yes she does magically endow inanimate objects with a believable life force for after all isn’t that what puppetry is all about? What separates Ingrid Hansen from other puppeteers and performances is what she uses and how she uses them. Vegetables, shoes, shadow, light, an old raincoat, dreams, performance art, social critique, and audience participation all makes it into the act.
This show was the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time. Their wasn’t a dry seat in the house. Wear your astronaut diapers just in case. You can catch the last shows this weekend, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. with a Saturday matinée at 2 p.m. /Charles Atlas Sheppard
