Skip to main contentBeachball-colored humanoids, monochromatic dervishes by way of Bauhaus and a self-segmenting caterpillar. If it's Portland, this must be Imago.
The company that released the ingenious Frogz upon the world more than a decade ago is finally following up its success with a new vaudeville of creatures that will include turtles, polar bears, anteaters and mice, as well as animate dresses and independent eyes. But the show promises to be more than a Frogz Redux.
With Biglittlethings, Imago's artistic co-directors Carol Triffle and Jerry Mouawad are turning back to their roots and are introducing elements of dance into the piece. "The first piece that Jerry and I created together was a dance piece," says Triffle over lunch at Nicholas' (the piece, from 1979, was bizarrely titled Steffens).
The cast of 10 in their newest creation is evenly divided between five mask performers and five dancers, which has provided Triffle and Mouawad with new challenges in giving directions. "At the beginning, some of the dancers looked askance at me when I gave them directions," says Triffle. "We weren't giving them straightforward choreography where you say, 'Move your arm here,'" adds Mouawad. "That's right," Triffle says. "Like in Lecoq's method, we're interested in them finding out why they move in a particular way."
First imagined as a show titled Squid Attack (in which a giant squid puppet attacked the audience in the theater), the new work finally earned its name while the Imago team experimented with different ideas. "I suddenly found myself interested in miniatures and enlargements," says Triffle, "and images and ideas flowed from that."
As with Frogz, Biglittlethings will be a veritable feast of styles. The "Space" segment uses the Czech Black style, in which puppeteers decked in black velvet in front of a black background disappear behind their puppets. For "Fish" (which premiered in the last round of Frogz), fluorescent rod puppets are used in UV light. For "Caterpillar," the entire cast crams into big dissected slices of the creature to create a whole bug on stage.
"Biglittlethings is very much a work in progress," says Mouawad. "We're very interested in what our audiences make of it, and we'll be asking for their comments after each show." Imago's New York presenters will also be flying out to see how the new show is shaping up, with plans to bring it to New York sometime next year to follow the East Coast success of Frogz...that bighit from a littletheatertown.
Imago Theatre, 17 SE 8th Ave., 231-9581. 7:30 pm Wednesdays-Fridays, 1:30 and 7:30 pm Saturdays, 1:30 and 5:30 pm Sundays. Opens Dec. 4. $14 (children)-$24.
Triffle was a master student of the famed French theater director Jacques Lecoq.
WWeek 2015