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The Vertigo of Sheep Reviews
Must-see show: The Vertigo of Sheep at Someday Lounge
Willamette Week Online
Review by Ben Waterhouse
March 2nd 2007
Got plans this weekend? No? Well get your bored behind over to Someday Lounge and check out the best freaking puppet show you've ever seen!
Yorkshire-based Thingumajig Theatre, with the support of Portland's Tears of Joy Theatre, have brought a little piece of genius to the Someday's tiny stage: The Vertigo of Sheep, a medley of bible stories told—as Dickinson would say—slant by a puppet-wielding clown and his one-woman-band partner. It's a beautiful, funny show, and cheap: $15 general admission.
The Puppetry Journal
Review by Karen Larsen
Fall 2005
From the moment you enter the theatre to witness Andrew Kim's “Vertigo of Sheep” (and Kathy Bradley's-she was much more than an accordion accompanist!) you're struck by the extraordinary quality of the production values. At once moody, mysterious and inviting, the set seems like nothing so much as a welcoming ancient apothecary, and from the warm and rich, yet “shopworn” look of it, we expect that it can offer us an effective palliative. We're right.
My original impetus was to say this play utilizes actor, musician and object theatre, but on further thought I'd say it uses object and icon theatre to tell familiar Bible stories, and Kim manages this without being iconoclastic. He presents the classic lesson-rich stories Jacob's Dream, Abraham & Isaac, Sodom & Gomorrah (with a silent finger to his lip-oh my!), and the like as if they were everyday tales and he's action them out for a favorite nephew.
Using his entire body as a well tuned, expressive instrument (Robert Smythe told me once that most American actors act only from the neck up, but he would have no complaints here even though Kim's marvelous mugging is a delight in itself), Kim uses everything at his disposal to bring these tales to life… a drawer becomes an oven; forks become heart-wrenching humans; a cabinet serves as a Punch & Judy-like booth; in a one sided dialogue you understand clearly the unspoken voice. Some stories require “puppets” and others don't-Kim wisely does not include them in scenes where the human actor is more effective alone.
As in “The Unlikely Birth of Istvan”, there were Brechtian devices at work here. Though you were (except in one tale) completely drawn into the storytelling, you never forgot that you were watching a highly theatrical presentation. Kim seamlessly wrought uber-familiar Bible stories some new and compelling existential questions for me, and now I can't wait to see more of his work.
Jacob's Ladder
life of riley mccarthy [blog]
March 22, 2007
...THE VERTIGO OF SHEEP is a beautiful, inventive show about a man trying to better understand the messages of the Old Testament by reimagining and staging some of the parables himself, using the everyday objects he keeps around in the set's shelves and cabinets as puppets. The use of the everyday objects is what gives the show its charm and momentum. As a viewer, I was always curious to see what the man would pull out of his cabinets.
My favorite part was the fall of Sodom and Gommorah, illustrated with slices of angel food cake and a pile of forks. Also good was the story of Abraham and Isaac, parts of which were told with a butter knife, a rock and a cup of water. The creation of the world was told using coat hangers and a wine rack.
But the whole thing flows kinda brilliantly, thanks to the talents and enthusiasm of the two cast members, and it's always fun and never, ever preachy.
The whole show was developed, built and performed by Andrew Kim and Kathy Bradley, and Kim's work as the central character and primary puppeteer is engaging.
Bradley, meanwhile, steals the show by creating a fully-realized, expressive character who, meanwhile, provides all of the incidental music, sings three solos and even injects humor and attitude into just changing the title cards. She was terrific. I want her to follow me around with a ukelele and provide theme music for my whole life.
The whole show was really good, managing to explore its big ideas while not getting too overwhelmed by them and remembering always to entertain the audience.