BeginningsDCTheatre1

Beginnings Review

Humble Beginnings at Playbill Cafe

May 19, 2006; DC Theatre Review

Though you might not realize it upon entering the poster-decked bar which probably would be right at home next to Don't Tell Mama on Restaurant Row, the tiny back room of the Playbill Café has its very own puppet show going on.

These puppets have a weightier task ahead of them than the jovial characters on Sesame Street, or even the dysfunctional lot over on Avenue Q. Puppets, and various other props, are what drive the creation myth stories presented to us in Meat & Potato Theatre’s charming Beginnings, entertaining us for a brief hour and fifteen minutes over at 1409 14th ST NW.

The show presents six stories from far-reaching sources, ranging from the ancient Greeks to the Navajos, in starkly different ways. "Prometheus," a show highlight, is performed with an assortment of props taken from a golden suitcase which doubles as Pandora’s Box (you gotta love Zeus as a floating, Incredible Hulk head). The best of these is "How The Robin Got His Red Breast", which features two day-glo Eskimos facing off against a monstrous bear with the help of a plucky bird, and some impressive-looking Northern Lights (Meat & Potato has already demonstrated its proficiency with neon and blacklight during an eerie reading of "The Raven" during its Poe 2000 show; it’s a weird niche, but someone has to fill it).

Other pieces are more uneven – "The Maiden and Her Brothers" is artfully staged with silhouettes behind a lit screen, but the voices behind the screen prove a bit shrill. There are some general issues with synching up dialogue and puppet during "Why The Days Grow Long and Short", and the red-robe-clad Tiger narrating the story is amusing but distracting. "The Watermother", performed more with choreography and props than puppets, proves a lyrical beginning, but the similarly-staged “The Lion and the Butterfly” offers a somewhat anti-climatic conclusion.

As a whole, the ensemble cast does a nice job handling the light choreography, sound effects and more intricate puppetry. Voiceovers by Tobin and Enid Atkinson are intense and melodic, and verge towards the sing-song, though never in a grating, Mary-Alice-in-Desperate-Housewives kind of way.

On opening night, the company was still working out some kinks, and there were touches of the amateur – an incorrectly used prop gave Prometheus’s ending an unintentionally amusing new meaning, and hushed cursing after another error could be heard from offstage. But these missteps proved almost endearing while watching a small company with clear talent perform their hearts out for a very empty little theatre. As they work to polish this piece, they deserve a few warm bodies in front of them while they’re doing it.

Beginnings runs through June 4 at Playbill Cafe.