The tagline for the show is, “the weirdest puppet show you’ve ever seen,” and is hosted by a sassy grandma trying to steal the spotlight. This isn’t exactly your run-of-the-mill muppets encounter.
Although, performer and co-artistic director of SNAFU, Society of Unexpected Spectacles, Ingrid Hansen, has worked on multiple puppetry projects — like the new Fraggle Rock — which is usually what people think of, when talking about puppetry.
“A lot of people, when they think of puppetry, they think of Muppet-style puppets, furry creatures with fluffy mouths,” she says. “But this show is very different, it is not that at all.”
Ingrid Hansen in Epidermis Circus. Photo by Helene Cyr.
Epidermis Circus — performing at Meridian Theatres @ Centrepointe from Jan. 30-Feb. 1 — is a spicy puppet cabaret where Hansen makes a live puppet film on stage.
“I have a table and a camera and tiny sets and environments and things,” she says. “And you’re watching me make a live puppet film while it’s simultaneously coming to be on the giant projection above my head.”
Epidermis Circus will also have an ASL interpreter for the matinee performance on Feb. 1 by Katherine Sibun.
“The show works really well with ASL because so much of it is visual and not language-based,” says Hansen.
Hansen will be using her bare hands, her face and different objects to create characters through multiple illusions.
“This show was born out of a kind of mad scientist-style laboratory experimentation,” says Hansen. “It didn’t come from an intellectual concept, it came from tactile hands-on exploration of objects, mirrors, hands, cameras.”
Scene from Epidermis Circus. Photo by Helene Cyr.
Along with Britt Small, one of the artistic directors for Atomic Vaudeville, Hansen tinkered around in the studio creating a whole bunch of stuff — some that made it to the show, and some that didn’t.
“The two of us had a lot of fun messing around together, putting Epidermis Circus together,” says Hansen.
For Hansen, puppetry is something that allows for a unique connection between performer and audience.
“Puppets are awesome because, with a human actor, you’re limited to reality and physics and gravity,” she says. “But with a puppet, you can become any character, and the characters can transform. A puppet can tear its head off and throw it around the room and put it back on again, but humans are much more boring.”
Hansen hopes that audiences embrace the weird and wonderful world of puppetry.
“I hope that people who already knew that they liked weird art get to sit in a room and experience weird art together with other people,” she says. “ And then I hope there’s people who didn’t know that they loved weird art who then come and see the show and go, ‘Oh my gosh, this is for me, I never knew.’”
Catch Epidermis Circus at Meridian Theatres @ Centrepointe from Jan. 30-Feb. 1 at Les Lye Studio Theatre. You can get your tickets online. For more information about the show, visit the Meridian Theatres @ Centrepointe website.
