THEATRE

 Modern Times Theater presents “The City”, a toy theater play based on the fairy tale by Hermann Hesse. See one thousand years in the history of a civilization presented in vivid cardboard technicolor! The glorious arrival of the urban world takes place on a miniscule stage of wonder. The droll superintendents of this production are none other than Punch and Judy, puppetry’s favorite jerk and his loudmouth wife. Never before has such an epic drama been revealed in such pint-sized proportions!

This evening also features the sweet sounds of the Plank House band, a cornet and cigar-box ukulele duo specializing in classic novelty tunes of the 1920's, and a street show series from “The Rural Person’s Verbal Reclamation Front,” whose mission is to rescue language from the icy grip of the post-industrial empire and present as a gift for the mutual benefit of woman and beast, man and pasture.

Modern Times Theater makes puppet shows for the street, the school, the barn, the pasture and the subway. Using cantastoria, cranky, hand puppet, and toy theater forms, the shows convey a general dissatisfaction with post-modern convenience and promote a return to old-fashioned difficulty. Modern Times Theater is also part of the Vermont Vaudeville troupe, performing Vaudeville shows in the Opera Houses of Vermont. Modern Times Theater is Rose Friedman and Justin Lander, alumni of the Bread and Puppet Theater. Their corporate offices are on a small farm in East Hardwick, Vermont.