THEATRE REVIEW: THE DAISY THEATRE

JOHN COULBOURN, Special to TorSun
16 JUNE 2013
R: 4/5

TORONTO - Critics — sometimes, there’s just no pleasing us. Let’s take the case of Ronnie Burkett, for example.

For the better part of 40 years, this particular critic has been watching the incredibly gifted performer and his coterie of puppets and marionettes run delightfully amok in everything from kids’ puppet shows to sophisticated, thoughtful fare like Tinka’s New Dress and Street of Blood. And always in the back of my mind, I’ve harboured a concern (perhaps too often expressed) that, in his efforts to take what has long been a ghetto for children’s entertainment into an arena rich with possibility for adult audiences as well, he would lose control and go too far over the edge of good taste even for an adult audience.

Then, Friday night, seated in the Berkeley Street Theatre, watching Luminato’s world première of the Ronnie Burkett Theatre of Marionettes’ new production of THE DAISY THEATRE, I found myself wishing he’d loosen up a bit and take things just a little further.

To explain: THE DAISY THEATRE is Burkett’s homage to the Czech puppeteers who rather famously used their art as a means of resistance during the Nazi’s Second World War occupation of their country, and though the format is similar to today’s late-night talk shows, it is also something more — or it should aim to be.

Like a lot of late night fare, it features a skit or two — contemporary playwrights like Anusree Roy, Brad Fraser, Daniel MacIvor, Damien Atkins and others have authored skits Burkett and his marionettes will perform over the course of the run — plus a bit of singing and even a musical guest in the form of John Alcorn, who gets a credit for sound design too. It also features a bit of contemporary patter — references to the ongoing Ford pile-up and to a few other political sacred cows, many delivered by members of Burkett’s own stable of stars like Edna Rural, who drops by to talk about her new life in Toronto. There’s also a fair bit of audience participation, deftly handled and thoroughly enjoyable. In other words, it is typical Burkett fare, served up with the kind of irreverence and professional polish we’ve come to expect from this ‘kid’ from Medicine Hat. But, in the end, it all seems perhaps just a little too polished, overlaid with a sense of well-rehearsed improvisation, if you will.

For all its charm, what THE DAISY THEATRE needs — and what it will no doubt acquire over the length of its run — is the feeling that no one (including the master puppeteer himself) knows what is going to happen next; the feeling that the lunatics which Burkett has crafted with so much love and attention to detail over the years are not only capable of seizing their strings and taking this show into uncharted territory — but that they are about to do it. Truly, these are words I never dreamed I would ever use, but maybe it’s time to loosen up a bit, Ronnie.