Can we lose the stability of home . . . without losing our capacity for wonder?
In Wonderful Joe, master puppeteer and storyteller Ronnie Burkett asks this poignant and difficult question – and others – in a topical, moving ,and sometimes disorienting exploration of resilience, community, and identity.
The TO Live production of Wonderful Joe, playing at the Jane Mallett Theatre, is as strange as it is magical. The story centres on an aging gay man named Joe Pickle and his dog Mister, who we first meet as hand puppets being voiced and manipulated by Burkett at the top of the wooden structure within which he brings the show’s universe of puppet characters to life. In the play’s opening scene, they are served an eviction notice by the frazzled building manager Sonny. This kind of scene is a sad reality of life amidst the creeping gentrification and real estate market manipulations of 2024 Toronto.
But instead of bemoaning the callous greed of the building owners and fearing for his future after decades of life in the bubble of a rent-controlled apartment, Joe seizes the day. He gathers up Mister for one final adventure. They make their way down the building’s five stories to street level – in the process transforming into gangly, exquisitely expressive marionettes – and begin a journey through their neighbourhood, which teems with the risqué humour and the diverse humanity of the downtown gay scene. In their journey, they traverse terrain that is not just geographical but metaphysical, as Joe crosses paths with puppet neighbours both housed and unhoused, including a sex worker, a former flirtation, a combative retired librarian, the fantastical Trash Alley Players, and the real estate developer who is the plot’s catalyst – plus characters like Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and even Jesus, each struggling with their own lost place in an ever-changing world.
Burkett, a Governor General’s Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, has long been hailed as a pioneering force in modern puppetry — pushing the technical, theatrical and emotional limits of the craft ever-further and ever-deeper. With Wonderful Joe, Burkett dives deep into this richly textured urban world that unspools in a story that is akin to a literary puppet odyssey. Think James Joyce’s Ulysses with its episodic structure and mosaic of characters, with each encounter unfolding like a self-contained chapter—delightfully bizarre and tinged with heartache, as an aged, near-naked Mother Nature laments environmental decay, or Santa Claus ruminates on commercialism gone wild. Burkett’s fantastical characters externalize their internal conflicts, making their existential dramas feel simultaneously universal and uniquely quirky.
The play’s puppets are as varied and intricate as the characters they portray. Burkett masterfully manipulates – and voices — his hand-crafted marionettes, whose intricate construction and expressive, lifelike movements allow us to sink right into their idiosyncratic, often absurd realities. The Tooth Fairy, for example, exudes a kind of faded glamour, while Mother Nature feels ancient and timeless, her presence heavy with untold wisdom. Meanwhile, those puppets who are not in immediate use hover swaying at the edges of the stage, conjuring a spectral aura of untold stories. It’s a powerful metaphor for the subjectivity of what we perceive and what remains hidden in the corners of our own lives.
Through it all, Joe’s resilient positivity acts as the show’s emotional throughline. It anchors the play in warmth and resilience, even as his encounter with Getti, a young Goth who is being punished for being true to herself, prompts Joe to a serious consideration of his mortality and legacy. In the end, this real and surreal, funny yet bittersweet presentation leaves us pondering the broader nature of identity, belonging . . . and wonder.
For those ready to dive into a work that is whimsical, strange, and puppet-populated – yet profoundly and messily human — Wonderful Joe is not just a show to watch but an experience to be absorbed. Its magical realism offers a moving, sometimes disorienting journey into what it means to remain wonderful in a world of loss and transformation.
Wonderful Joe, presented by TO Live continues on stage until October 23, 2024 at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, Jane Mallett Theatre. Tickets are available at tolive.com.
© Scott Sneddon, Sesaya Arts Magazine, 2024
