Alan Cook's Review

Forgot to post this earlier, but here's a lovely review our friend Alan Cook (of the International Puppet Museum) sent out to his mailing list. It doesn't quite fit in our press archives, so I wanted to post it here.

Sean Cawelti has already posted the glowing review of the Rogues Artists production of their Punch show. Whatever the level of various reviewers enthusiasm, they ALL seem to agree on one thing--the high level of production values, and for this alone, the show is a "must see."

The L.A. Times review will undoubtedly carry the most weight, which should keep audiences coming. The Bootleg Theater space is a great improvement over the previous location of the earlier version of the show. The amount of group effort put in to this production is mind-boggling.

The show has remained faithful to the graphic novel source material. I had never specifically thought of a graphic novel having high production value in its own right, but so it is here, and the Rogues production has caught that on stage.

Some reviewers admitted to "mixed feelings" about the script, but that comes from the graphic novel, and it seemed important to remain close to the source.

In this Punch & Judy show, Punch is having a not-for-children romp in the hay with Pretty Polly, and the crocodile does not vanquish Mr Punch.

The punchman says something about probably ending his life in the workhouse--unfortunately, this was in keeping with historical accuracy. The Italian puppeteer (Picini) whose show was written down by Collier, illustrated by Cruikshank, and became a publishing phenomenon (being published in over 100 editions by different printers and becoming the "standard Punch script" for later Punchmen) did indeed end his life in the workhouse (aka the poorhouse).

I hope today's punchmen & women will fare better.

- Alan Cook