Review: (Toronto / Theatre) The Miller and His Wife

(photo by Sheila Sky)

Nose to the grindstone
The Miller works hard, but not much fun
by Jason Booker

What a strange experience.

The Miller and His Wife are two short puppet pieces by the Puppetmongers (siblings Ann and David Powell) that they originally created in the mid-70s. As part of their 40th season, they have chosen to revisit some of their greatest hits, which includes this double-bill of “American Bunraku Puppetry.”

The two halves of the bill, The Miller and the story of His Wife, were created separately and are partnered here as the first shows that the Powells presented professionally. In the earlier show and the opener here, The Miller, the feudal lord comes to collect tithe from the miller and winds up outsmarted when the punishment issued (involving an adorable turn from a stuffed cow) turns into a financial windfall and a damp plunge into a nearby stream. His wife, following a brief resetting of the stage, later owns a bakery and is ordered to make a cake for the king by a scheming chancellor which, again, results in a plan that backfires and the good prevail.

Bonus Feature: First Person - David Powell of Puppetmongers on Tea at the Palace

Tea (and cookies) at the Palace!
Historical references loaded with innuendo are not usual lines in children’s theatre pieces, but all part and parcel of a Puppetmongers’ show. 
by David Powell (photos by Dahlia Katz)

Puppetmongers Theatre presents the work of the Canadian brother and sister team of Ann and David Powell, who are internationally recognized as leaders and innovators in the field of puppetry.  They have developed a dozen new plays for both young and general audiences, which have earned a combined total of 11 Dora Award nominations.  They have been short-listed twice for the Chalmers new Canadian Play for Young Audiences Award and received four Citations of Excellence from l’Union International de la Marionette (US).  They have also received the Award for Artistic Excellence from the Puppeteers of America, and the President’s Award, a medal which has also been awarded to Jim Henson (Muppets), Julie Taymor (Lion King) and fellow Canadian puppeteers Ronnie Burkett and Coad Canada.   

Puppetmongers was founded by my sister Ann and me as a continuation of our complex childhood play.  The Christmas Ann was 8 and I was 7, our parents gave Ann a marionette as a gift.  We used our Christmas money to buy another each, and we were off to the races.  Puppetry became the focus of our time together during all our holidays home from separate boarding schools. We were doing small shows by the time we were 14, but certainly did not conceive of it as a career.  Eventually, we ended up at Ontario College of Art & Design simultaneously, where we were generously given a room for our puppetry experiments.  We formally incorporated in 1974, and we were soon performing in over 100 Toronto schools a year, touring widely across Canada, regularly performing at festivals around the world and winning international theatre awards – but we were completely unknown to the Toronto general public.  So we approached the late Urjo Kareda, then Artistic Director at the Tarragon Theatre.  He knew our Brick Bros. Circus from those wonderful Tarragon Theatre Spring Arts Fairs (we do miss them so!), and he generously ushered us into his Back Space theatre to run a show during their downtime over the Winter Holidays.  Thus was started a Toronto Theatre Tradition that has endured for almost 25 years.