Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – The haunting THE PAPER HAT GAME is poetic and exquisite puppet theater

• By drediman
• July 17, 2016
• No Comments

I recently had the chance to catch a performance of The Tank’s poetic production of The Paper during its last weekend at 3-Legged Dog. Much like Manual Cinema’s equally exquisite Ada/Ava last season (coincidentally, at the Wall Street-area venue), The Paper Hat Game is simple yet profoundly expressive puppet theater. The show is a playful, yet semi-tragic, but ultimately clear-eyed testament to living in a large city. At only under an hour, The Paper Hat Game manages to be a full experience, artfully conjuring up a world that’s intensely personal and as expansive and teeming as the city it’s bringing to life (in this case, Chicago).

Stylishly created and ingeniously directed by Torry Bend, the production uses a beguiling mix of puppetry (courtesy of Aaron Hanskell) and video design (courtesy of Raquel Salvatella de Prada) to create an unfolding series of haunting urban pictures. The breathtaking array of perspectives and techniques used is as mesmerizing as the story the show is telling. Indeed, here, form and content are hypnotically indistinguishable. This is sophisticated visual art – folded into an unconventional and noirish narrative – that shouldn’t be missed.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

THE PAPER HAT GAME
Off-Broadway, Play/Puppet Theater
3-Legged Dog and The Tank
50 minutes (without an intermission)
Through July 17