The Guardian, Brighton, UK, May 17, 2002
Street of Blood (*****)
Gardner
Centre, Brighton
by
LYN GARDNER,
Lord
love a duck, what have we here? A show that lasts almost two and a half
hours without an interval. A puppet show at that. And it all takes place
at the end of the universe: Turnip Corner, Alberta, Canada. Here nice,
homely old biddy Edna is eking out an existence "in the pit of eternal
debt" with the help of her quilting and her affection for the late
Princess of Wales. It doesn't sound promising at all.
There you would be wrong, because this everyday story of families, Aids,
vampires, the second coming and motherly affection on the prairie from
the puppeteer Ronnie Burkett is a masterpiece. It is a remarkable mixture
of the gothic and the homespun, the camp and the heartfelt, the outrageous,
the acidly funny and the quietly touching. It nuzzles at your heart and
takes a great big bite out of it.
Edna is quietly quilting one day when she pricks her finger and the blood
seeps into the material, making a face. Her friend thinks it might be
Elvis, but Edna knows it is the face of Christ. So is born the shroud
of Turnip Corner.
Its creation coincides with the homecoming of Edna's adopted son, Eden,
and the arrival in town of Esme Massengill, a Hollywood has-been. Eden
believes the film star to be his birth mother, but she has other plans
for him. There is plenty at stake here, and Burkett's story clots together
very nicely as it examines prejudice, pain, rage, disappointment, the
inadequacies of God and the way blood is not necessarily thicker than
the other ties that bind people together, such as love.
Burkett manipulates and provides all the voices for his tiny detailed
marionettes. This is a miracle in itself. But it is not just the skill
you marvel at - it is the sheer humanity of a show into which Burkett
seems to have poured his whole being, and that celebrates the quiet and
quite extraordinary lives of ordinary people like Edna.
Until Saturday. Box office: 01273 709709. Then tours to Manchester and
Glasgow.
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