Wood Boy Dog Fish 

Reviewed by Gray Palmer 
Rogue Artists Ensemble 
Through June 24 

RECOMMENDED 

To quote an adage from earliest criticism, “Painting is silent poetry. Poetry is painting that talks” (or so Simonides says). In Wood Boy Dog Fish, we have painting, poetry, and then some. Playwright/lyricist Chelsea Sutton has revisited Carlo Collodi’s picaresque novel as her source — it was first a “foolish” serial publication that starts with a talking log rejected by a frightened carpenter — to fashion two solid acts from Collodi’s branching chaos of episodes and adventures.

Lucky Angelenos who saw Rogue Artists Ensemble’s re-imagining of Pinocchio at Bootleg in 2015 will want to repeat the experience as it returns at the Garry Marshall Theatre. Songs have been added, with new choreography, sets, puppet design, scenes, and some changes of the cast.

The show is a toy-box of visual wit. The work of this company, in some ways unique to Los Angeles, would be distinctive anywhere. It is characteristic of the collaborative effort of designers, devoted to handmade and (seemingly) low-tech elements, with layers of surface built-up over a long process of gestation.

The show reverberates in immediate allegorical dimensions. Geppetto (the terrific Ben Messmer), a grief-stricken alcoholic, carves the boy during an all-night session punctuated by panic and nauseated black-outs. As we see Geppetto’s fabrication and assembly of a boy, director Sean Cawelti compresses time by ingenious means — it involves the manipulation of a table-lamp. When the puppet is completed (nails in the head are bristles of hair), voiced perfectly by Rudy Martinez and articulated bunraku-style by a sensitive team dressed in black (Martinez with Mark Royston and Sarah Kay Peters), the bewildered Wood Boy kills a talking cricket and asks Geppetto impossible questions about the human heart.

We begin in the decaying resort town of Shoreside, where the main attraction, Dogfish Adventure Ride, has shut down after fatalities. One popular puppet-show struggles on, managed by the vicious Fire-Eater (the frightening Keiana Richard, concealed by a giant head) and her carny assistants Fox (the triple-threat Amir Levi, who also serves as MC/barker of the first act) and Cat (the gleeful, thuggish Tyler Bremer).

We continue, in a mood of broken-hearted vagabondage, through a peri-urban forest of wild children. Wood Boy teams up with Wick (a very good Lisa Dring), who pops out of a trash-heap, an orphan in search of Funland. Mad addiction to pleasure presages more danger — transformation into piñata donkeys, candied beatings, and taffy innards tossed into the audience by the MC of Funland (Miles Taber as an evil clown).

In Wood Boy Dog Fish, Collodi’s “Fairy with Tourquoise Hair” takes the form of Blue (the superb Tane Kawasaki), whose narrative interventions are a coup of casting, performance, costume, lighting, and music. Is fear the food of the Terrible Dog Fish (the excellent Paul Turbiak)? Is there a remedy for a heart filled with fear?

Songs and incidental music are by the gifted Adrien Prévost. The remarkable design team, all of whom deserve considerable acknowledgement, is as follows: Choreography by Nate Hodges; scenic design by Francoise-Pierre Couture and Matt G. Hill; lighting by Joey Guthman; costumes by Lori Meeker; sound by Steve Swift; video by Dallas Nichols; props by Hardly Human FX; puppet and mask by Greg Ballora, Sean T. Cawelti, Christine Paplexis, Jack Pullman, Morgan Rebane, and Brian White; makeup and hair by Joceyln Pazos and Erica Romero; LED (the Blue fairy-lights!) by Peter Helstrom.

An installation (by Kirk Wilson) in the lobby of the Garry Marshall Theatre creates a detailed Shoreside museum exhibit to enjoy before or after the show. There is even fortune-telling available.

Garry Marshall Theatre, 4252 W. Riverside Dr., Burbank; Wed.-Sat. 8pm, Sun. 3pm & 7pm through June 24; (818) 955-8101(818) 955-8101(818) 955-8101955-8101(818) 955-8101955-8101 or garrymarshalltheatre.org. Running time: two hours and 20 minutes with intermission.