Review: (Vancouver) Daisy Theatre

(Schnitzel)

Wonderfully, lovably, hilariously Canadian puppets
Ronnie Burkett’s latest work ramps up the silliness
by Chris Lane

Ronnie Burkett is a true master of puppets, and with his latest work, The Daisy Theatre, he’s just plain having fun, and leaving the audience in stitches.

The production is a series of 'playlets' involving one or two marionettes, which are only roughly scripted and vary substantially from night to night. They all make up The Daisy Theatre, which is the kookiest and crassest travelling theatre troupe this side of the 49th parallel. The marionettes make so many snarky asides and Vancouver-oriented jokes that each performance feels like a special treat just for that night’s audience.

Review: (Toronto) The Daisy Theatre (Luminato)

Pure Joy

by Beat Rice

Ronnie Burkett kicked off many Torontonians'  2013 Luminato experience at the Berkeley Theatre with pure joy, at the première of The Daisy Theatre. 

Ronnie Burkett is known for his brilliant work with marionette theatre. He is an artist who brings his pieces of art to life. Every marionette is a character he has built physically in small-scale, and imaginatively, in large scale. 

The show is a show within a show. Burkett tells us at the top that his performance is improvised every night. And there may or may not be an interpretation of a 10 minute play by a Canadian playwright written for the project. With the premise of variety acts about to be performed at ‘The Daisy Theatre’, the scenes are a mishmash of monologues, to short plays, to musical numbers and audience participation fun. He performs in a puppet theatre, a raised platform in a framed box on the stage, which has a little stage and even curtains of its own. Burkett stands up top controlling the will of his puppets that surround him, hanging by invisible threads in the dark. It is a fascinating setup, designed by Burkett himself.