Performance Review: "The Ghastly Dreadfuls"

“The Ghastly Dreadfuls’ Compendium of Graveyard Tales and Other Curiosities,” A puppet show at the Center for Puppetry Arts, Oct. 11–29, 2006.

“The Ghastly Dreadfuls,” this year’s wickedly funny and entertaining Halloween puppet show at The Center for Puppetry Arts, is a bite-sized Almond Joy treat for adults.

Let loose from their respective cemeteries for an evening of graveyard tales and cabaret-style song, dance and puppetry, the multitalented, fictional Ghastly Dreadfuls narrated this variety show, tickets to which were an affordable $20.

After describing their respective demises with glee — Simply Dreadful, for example, was kicked in the head not by a horse, “but by a whore, a rather large one” — the pale-faced, wild-haired deadpan crew of seven launched into their first story, “The Ghost on the Trapeze.”

The acrobatics the puppets performed during this original first sketch were dazzling. The philandering trapeze artist, his spurned wife and his circus lover actually swung from the set’s tiny trapeze and gingerly navigated the tight rope, one small wooden foot in front of the next. I couldn’t help but look up in awe at the puppeteers deftly manipulating their creations in the near darkness.

But watching this professional puppet show was like watching a movie with subtitles: after a while the subtitles or, in this case, the puppeteers ceased to be important. And sitting farther back in the narrow, stadium-style theater, the thin marionette strings disappeared, nudging the audience into the world of make-believe.

Marionettes didn’t dominate every sketch though. “The Girl in the New Dress,” the story of a creepily cheery girl who turns into a sort of demented June Cleaver is told through a series of campy, cartoon-style revolving cutouts. Think artist Roy Lichtenstein, but with blood spatters.

The suspenseful “Three at Table” alternated puppet and people actors to great seamless effect. And the short PG-13 film “Exotic Ghosts: The Creepy Compendium of International Ghouls from A to Z” by Kristin Jarvis comically highlighted little-known spirits such as Hantu Tetek, a ghost from Southeast Asia who smothers men with her huge breasts.

No detail of this entertaining production — from the intricately designed puppets, to the spooky lighting, to the set design — was too small for creators Jon Ludwig and Jason von Hinezmeyer. Even sound effects were spot on. For example, the sound of puppet feet crunching on snow during a lonely trek in “Three at Table” was a dead match.

“The Ghastly Dreadfuls” marked a departure from the center’s past Halloween shows, explained Ludwig and von Hinezmeyer.

“It is a more formal show than previous Halloween shows in that there is no audience participation. But, there is no fourth wall separating the Ghastly Dreadfuls from the audience either,” said von Hinezmeyer and Ludwig in an interview published on the National Center for Puppetry Arts Web site, www.puppet.org.

The intermission featured a costume contest for theatergoers possessed by the Halloween spirit and a highly popular beer and wine cash bar for the rest of the lively hipster crowd. The first monkey in space, a sexy stewardess and a Kanye West–inspired gold digger took home the winnings: assorted axis of evil finger puppets and two free tickets to future shows.

Maybe the winners will return for the center’s production, “Tales of Edgar Allan Poe,” which will run from Jan. 17 to Feb. 11, 2007. If the Halloween show proved an apt barometer of the center’s talents, the Poe show will be a night of inexpensive, chilling fun. I’ll be back to this Midtown Atlanta performance gem.

- Reviewed by: Allison Loudermilk