Presentation House Theatre and Mexico’s famed Marionetas de la Esquina present the Canadian premiere of Amaranta Leyva’s puppet show, Sleeping Beauty Dreams, at Presentation House Theatre from Jan. 26 to Feb. 4. Tickets and info: or call 604-990-3474.
Two cultures collide in a modern day retelling of a classic princess tale, through life-size puppets, at Presentation House Theatre.
Sleeping Beauty Dreams is no amateur finger puppet show the Lower Lonsdale theatre is staging. In fact, Presentation House has brought in the big guns of the puppet world.
Mexico’s Marionetas de la Esquina is a preeminent puppet theatre company with a focus on the animated art of storytelling.
The group got on Presentation House’s radar when artistic director Kim Selody caught a performance of Sleeping Beauty Dreams at a popular children’s festival in Minneapolis a couple years ago.
“It’s the script, actually,” says Selody, of what drew him in. “The puppets are fascinating, they are really good. It’s a wonderful production.”
Selody struck up a conversation with Sleeping Beauty Dreams’ playwright Amaranta Leyva, who in turn was enchanted with Presentation House Theatre’s signature youth production, Jack and the Bean.
A theatre exchange between Mexico and Canada was borne out of that encounter.
In January the highly detailed, hand-made puppets travelled to North Â鶹´«Ă˝Ół»in special suitcases along with the Marionetas de la Esquina team to train and mentor a local cast to perform Sleeping Beauty Dreams in English.
Then, this summer, Selody will travel to Mexico City for five weeks to direct Jack and the Bean with a Spanish-speaking cast.
Back at Presentation House Theatre, this week the puppeteers are practising their breathing.
Sutherland Secondary and Studio 58 graduate Shizuka Kai is part of the team of unique actors who bring the characters to life – and that’s a tall order.
“With puppeteering you have to think ahead and you have to feel the puppet,” explains Kai. “The puppet has to be you in a sense. You have to breathe the same time as the puppet. You can never be separate because then it will look wrong. It just looks unnatural.”
Agility and timing are key in puppet theatre, as those manipulating the characters continuously switch from one puppet to another throughout the show. Kai, for instance, is gesturing for three completely different characters: a dainty queen, a silly king and a feisty child.
Ten puppets in total feature in Sleeping Beauty Dreams, of various sizes ranging from a gigantic dragon head puppet to a tiny one-hand puppet.
A rod on the back of the head and back of the body brings the puppet to life. A second puppeteer comes in to manipulate the hands and feet.
“It’s definitely hard work, but it’s rewarding,” says Kai.
Sleeping Beauty Dreams showcases Timothy Gosley, one of Canada’s most renowned puppeteers.
Gosley worked with Jim Henson on Fraggle Rock and his puppetry has been featured extensively in film and TV. The local ensemble cast also includes actor and puppeteer Randi Edmundson, Jessie Award-winning actor and playwright Linda Carson, as well as actor and improviser Brent Hirose.
A princess with overprotective parents and a lonely boy whose single mother works all the time are at the heart of this international collaboration. As they embark on a journey of self-discovery, both the princess and boy learn about the power of positive risk-taking.
“In reimagining this classic fairy tale through the humour and honesty of puppetry, we see the princess trying to break free of her castle walls to find her true self. In essence, this is a fresh coming-of-age story,” says Marionetas de la Esquina master puppeteer Lourdes Pérez Gay, who is co-director of Sleeping Beauty Dreams.
While aimed at children five years and older, Sleeping Beauty Dreams also resonates with parents, says Selody.
“Here we have a boy largely left to his own devices and a girl whose parents keep her within their own four walls because they have been told if she pricks her finger, she’ll die,” explains Selody. “In many ways, it’s an examination of two parenting extremes as seen through the eyes of children: latch-key kids and helicopter parents.”
The princess comes from a rich family with overprotective parents who won’t let her do anything. Young Mateo, meanwhile, plans to sneak inside the castle so he can spend more time with his mother. She works day and night as a maid for the childless queen, who wishes to have a baby more than anything else in the world.
Throw in a charming frog (not Kermit), a life-threatening curse and a star-crossed relationship and this puppet show has the all the makings of a classic fairy tale.
Even though the story isn’t specifically set in Mexico, there are Mexican details in the story. For example, the characters wear traditional Mexican clothing and the stage has the look and feel of any city in Mexico.
The puppeteers are dressed in all black clothes and sport a sombrero disguise to make the puppets seem more real when they move. While the set does include real props, the puppets also perform in front of a screen, allowing a series of animated projections to fill in the rest of the story.
Using a mold, which captures the character’s personality, each Marionetas de la Esquina puppet is fashioned from a special kind of clay for the head and wood for the body. The puppet is then dressed in a colourful costume.
“The craftsmanship that has gone into the puppets is quite extraordinary,” says Selody.
Sleeping Beauty Dreams was originally commissioned by Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center and has toured extensively in the U.S. and Europe.
Part of the magic of this Mexican-Canadian collaboration, according to Selody, has been learning about the role Marionetas de la Esquina played in helping children cope with the aftermath of the recent Mexican City earthquake.
“It has been an enormous insight into how theatre can rebuild spirit and address real and urgent needs,” says Selody.
Kai is excited about performing in front of a hometown audience at Presentation House Theatre and entertaining alongside a supporting cast of characters rarely seen in these parts.
“I hope that a lot of people come see the show because you don’t often get to see a puppet show that is this advanced and this specific and very beautifully done,” says Kai.
