We here at the Old Trout Puppet Workshop are plagued by a nagging sense
of dissatisfaction, and we think you might be too. So, on our common
behalf, we’ve gone searching for our lost bliss amongst the ignorant – our
prehistoric ancestors, who once howled in gigantic joy, stamping the rock
with grubby feet over the steaming remains of an eviscerated mastodon,
while we their clever progeny make do today with feeble tweets and
stuttering skype and hot yoga, all the while stifling the mightier shrieks that
surge below. Ignorance is a puppet documentary about the evolution of
happiness – from the thick-blooded hearts of the ancient caves, to the
ethereal heaven of our light-speed future – it’s about where we all went
wrong, and how we might find our way once again.
Not only that: it’s the first attempt at what we’re calling Open Creation – the
entire show has been written on the web for all to see and for all to
comment, criticize, or contribute. Visit www.theoldtrouts.org/ignorance to
take a look.
www.theoldtrouts.org – mail@theoldtrouts.org – 403 508 4929
By The Old Trout Puppet Workshop with Anonymous Contributors
Video Design by Jamie Nesbitt
Lighting Design by Cimmeron Meyer
Sound Design by The Old Trout Puppet Workshop
A ROUGH DESCRIPTON OF THE SHOW:
The show takes place in a cave – okay, not really a cave, it takes place in a
theatre, but granted there’s not that huge of a difference. The stage is lit by a
fire – don’t worry, it’s not real – that casts flickering shadows over some
strange primitive rite, performed by slope-browed cro-magnons – not really,
they’re actually the Old Trouts wearing clever disguises. They are telling
some kind of story, using rocks and branches and bones – it’s the original
story of our fall from grace, the first tale told, about how once we were the
proper inhabitants of paradise, and now are lost.
Intercut with the primal tale of woe are scenes from our own world of
facebook and traffic jams, which illustrate our own trajectory towards or
away from paradise.
And just when it all seems too much, the soothing voice of the narrator will
explain what’s going on in terms of neurological evolution, childhood
psychology, or the unseen unfolding of microbial dramas.
How does it all come together? Do we figure it all out, and achieve eternal
bliss? Or maybe even temporary bliss? This remains to be seen. We’re still
working on it.
Ignorance was first be seen by the world at a workshop performance at the
Banff Centre in December 2011. Its premiere was at the Vancouver East
Cultural Centre in February of 2012.
“Mind-blowing originality... [The Trouts] are boldly reshaping puppet
theatre into sophisticated adult entertainment.” – Fast-Forward Magazine
“Pure joy. Great, great theatre.” CBC Radio
www.theoldtrouts.org – mail@theoldtrouts.org – 403 508 4929
PHOTOS OF THE SHOW IN DEVELOPMENT
Two views of the set maquette. A central fire pit is surrounded by an abstract shape,
reminiscent of an enormous skeleton, or a cave, or a primeval forest. The shape is
derived from a pair of antlers. Images and animation will be projected onto the surface
stretched across the back of the structure.
Some puppets in progress.
Some of the puppets are meant to look like they have been made by cave-people.
www.theoldtrouts.org – mail@theoldtrouts.org – 403 508 4929
A BIT OF SCRIPT
1. HAPPINESS
[The stage is dark.]
MUSIC 1: Didone Abbandonata
[Lights up on a puppet of a helium-filled HAPPY FACE BALLOON, floating before us.]
THE NARRATOR 1A (1A):
Are you happy? Everybody should be happy. Happiness is the whole point of our existence; it’s the reason
we toil and strive and fight year after lonesome year – so that someday we’ll be happy.
[Enter a SAD CHILD from stage right. He wears a propellor beanie, which spins when he’s
excited. He slowly trudges over to centre stage; the Balloon circles behind him, watching.]
[The Balloon squeaks, getting the Sad Child’s attention; it floats down to him, and caresses
his cheek with its string. The propellor whizzes; the kid’s delighted by the balloon. The
balloon tickles him.]
THE NARRATOR 1B (1B):
And yet, recent sociological studies indicate that most people only experience occasional whiffs of contentment,
and when they do, they’re anxious about it going away within approximately 23 seconds of realizing they’re
happy. Adding that up, the average person will experience only fourteen and a half minutes of real bliss over
the course of their entire lifetime.
I shouldn’t have told you that. Maybe you’ve already had your fourteen and a half minutes – statistically
speaking you probably had most of them by the time you’re twelve, and there’s precious little to look forward
to now except decline and mounting desperation.
In fact, by the time this show is over, fourteen people will have jumped off of bridges in North America alone,
and twice that number in Finland – where they don’t even have that many bridges – and it’s all because
happiness is the only measure we have of a life worth living.
[The Balloon slowly wraps its string around the Sad Child’s neck, and then the Balloon
breaks his neck. Somebody crunches a plastic cup backstage for the sound effect.]
[The Child goes limp. The Balloon carries him away.]
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THE NARRATOR 1C (1C):
What’s gone wrong? How has happiness slipped from our grasp? How can we get it back? Those are big
questions…
[The Kid’s head bumps the set as they exit.]
2. CRUEL EDEN
[We hear wind whistling, and dripping water. We hear a distant drum booming,
approaching; soon we can make out a kind of moaning song and the occasional mournful
groan of some tusk trumpet being played.]
MUSIC 2: cave ambience
MUSIC 4: horns
[The three puppeteers enter in some odd procession; they wear grey union suits, with bare
feet, and dark cowls that partly obscure their faces. One carries a torch; another lugs a large
rock, and the third a tangled bundle of hair.]
NARRATOR 2A:
…to find some answers, we’re going to have start at the very beginning. Let’s take a journey together back in
time, to an age when the earth was yet young – an age of fire, and thunder, and weird grunting.
[They light a big fire in the middle of the stage, with great ceremony.]
VIDEO: cave wall, embers flying up, turning to stars and nebulas and cosmic things.
MUSIC 5: fire
THE NARRATOR 2B:
But to travel so deep into the bone-marrow memory of our species is no easy theatrical task. The puppeteers
must call upon their dark gods, using prehistoric talismans of stone and bone and hair, unearthed from the
ancient dust of ages.
The sound of thunder, and lightning flashing across the screen.
MUSIC 6: groans fade out
[The fire is lit. The puppeteers enact some strange ritual (to be figured in rehearsal) with
their objects.]
THE NARRATOR 2C (6A):
And now the very theatre around you is transforming into a dank cave, and you its rough-hearted
inhabitants; you can feel your foreheads shrinking, and your eyebrows growing thick and tangled and frankly
unmanageable.
www.theoldtrouts.org – mail@theoldtrouts.org – 403 508 4929
The sound of thunder, and lightning again.
THE NARRATOR 2E
And now a grandfather a thousand times great is slouching forth from the mists of eternity, to inhabit this
crude homunculus, to draw breath for the first time in a million years –
[They enact the creation of a prehistoric Adam, assembling him from the rock, the hair, and
the antler.]
6F Thunder and lightning.
–
THE NARRATOR 2F:
here before us stands Adam himself.
MUSIC: the cave groans cease.
[Adam is created. He draws a deep breath, and is alive. He groans.]
MUSIC 7: NIKOLAI - Merry Wives of Windsor
[Adam prances around a bit like a moron. He sees his hand, and waves it around; he feels his
face; he staggers a bit to stage right, and discovers his feet, and walking; he trips, and falls
against the stage right prong; he feels the prong, and is delighted.]
THE NARRATOR 2H (7B):
But the paleolithic era is no Paradise. No, the real Eden is a world more cruel than we could imagine. The
Ice Age blasts the planet with freezing gales…
Sound of gales
[Adam is blasted by the gale]
… and marauding monsters roam the winter-clutched wastes….
Sound of marauding monsters
[Adam hides from the monsters stage right]
…so our beleaguered forebears hide like trolls in caves, and live their short lives huddled in darkness and
smoke and body odour. Our stone-age Adam has been born into a species on the edge of extinction.
[Adam staggers back to centre stage.]
Only one thing spares him from the spectre of hopelessness. He has a very small brain, and so he cannot
conceive of anything better. He is alive, and that is miracle enough.
www.theoldtrouts.org – mail@theoldtrouts.org – 403 508 4929
Welcome to the Age of Ignorance.
SHORTER SHOW DESCRIPTION (128 words):
Ignorance is a puppet documentary about the evolution of happiness. Where
did it come from, and where did it go? Sure, we’ve got microwaves,
airplanes, and nagging senses of dissatisfaction – but our prehistoric
ancestors, stamping their grubby feet by firelight in common triumph over
the steaming corpse of an eviscerated mastodon, might just have felt more at
home in the world. With much grunting and shrieking and gnawing on
bones, the Old Trouts will explain where we went wrong, and how we might
find our way once again.
Not only that: it’s the first attempt at what we’re calling Open Creation – the
entire show has been written on the web for all to see and for all to
comment, criticize, or contribute. Visit www.theoldtrouts.org/ignorance to
take a peek.
EVEN SHORTER SHOW DESCRIPTION (96 words):
Ignorance is a puppet documentary about the evolution of happiness. The
Old Trouts seek the origin of bliss amongst the ignorant – our prehistoric
ancestors, who stamped the stones with grubby feet and howled in common
joy. The Old Trouts will try to explain where we went wrong, and how we
might find our way once again.
Not only that: it’s the first attempt at what we’re calling Open Creation – the
entire show has been written on the web for all to see and for all to
comment, criticize, or contribute. Visit www.theoldtrouts.org/ignorance to
take a peek.
ABSURDLY SHORT SHOW DESCRIPTION (74 words):
Ignorance is a puppet documentary about the evolution of happiness, from
the dark howls of our prehistoric ancestors to the ethereal future – the Old
Trouts will try to explain where we went wrong, and how we might find our
way once again.
It’s also our first attempt at what we’re calling Open Creation – the entire
show has been written on the web for all to see or contribute: visit
www.theoldtrouts.org/ignorance to take a peek.
www.theoldtrouts.org – mail@theoldtrouts.org – 403 508 4929