
By Ross@ frontmezzjunkies.com
I was told we would be going on a journey, traveling through the history of misogyny, but the voyage was as real as it was concurrent to the present social climate as it could be. Oddly enough, Ship of Fools reminded me of the old-fashioned Disney ride, “It’s a Small World” but flipped over to the dark side of our world, with an assortment of complex themes surrounding feminism and suppression, and how it is to live in the female world. We float around, past images and scenarios, taking them in, exploring our thoughts and reactions, and enjoying the ride. We are all on a small boat, floating, rotating, and being surrounded by complex visions and scenarios of the pathologized female.
The Ship of Fools, the theatrical performance piece that is being explored here presented by HERE’s Dream Music Puppetry Program is an expansion of what theatre and performance can be. Using live music, spoken word poetry, puppetry, movement and a unique visual design, we travel through re-imagined moments in history. Engaging in themes of oppression with jarring fantastical images and scenarios (lighting design: Ayumu “Poe” Saegusa; sound design: Gavin Price); questioning the status quo, and our personal way of looking at the world.


This Ship of Fools, based on medieval engravings, is the metaphorical reaction to the practice of forcing the insane and unwanted to sail out into the ocean unguided and doomed. Ridding the community of the burdensome misfits, while relieving the community of guilt and shame. With the current election rhetoric of hate, racism, xenophobia, and misogyny floating all around us, one can see how the politics of exclusion is just another way for the powerful to exorcise themselves of undesirables, “dismissing them to the ocean where the tides determined their fate.” We leave after our voyage with a wider world view, surviving the journey, and better for it.
[…] by #JessicaScott @HERE ‘s #DreamMusicPuppetryProgram https://frontmezzjunkies.com/2016/10/23/ship-of-fools/ read, like, share, retweet, enjoy tw: frontmezzjunkie IG/Tumblr/FB: […]
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[…] You can also check out my earlier review: #ShipofFools @HERE art center https://frontmezzjunkies.com/2016/10/23/ship-of-fools/ Read, like, share, retweet, enjoy. tw: frontmezzjunkie IG/Tumblr/FB: […]
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[…] by one, through their eyes, we are introduced to the selfish and reality-disconnected souls on this Ship of Fools, and they are an undeniably horrific bunch of boorish billionaires. The Ship of Fools dynamic, […]
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