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Old Trouts Puppet Show visits Banff with ghost story twist

BANFF – A haunted house, a philosopher who is also a puppet, and opera – all from the perspective of the dead.
Old Trout Ghost Opera Philosopher beseeching Jason Stang Photography
A photo taken by the Old Trouts photographer, titled ‘The Philosopher Beseeching.’

BANFF – A haunted house, a philosopher who is also a puppet, and opera – all from the perspective of the dead.

Potentially not a show you’d see every day but maybe one you’d expect to have its world premiere at the Banff Centre and exactly what the Old Trout’s Puppet Workshop is promising for its upcoming Ghost Opera – a collaborative project between the Banff Centre, the Old Trouts, and the Calgary Opera.

Co-artistic director for the Old Trout’s, Judd Palmer, said the absurdity of all these art forms together is exactly the appeal.

“It is a puppet opera which is a totally ridiculous thing, you know, that such a thing should exist,” he said.

“It doesn’t happen all that often but we’re fusing these two ancient traditions, one noble, marvelous like opera and one’s sort of a weird hob-goblin hobby like puppetry.”

The show is based on an ancient Greek ghost story, one you may already know, where a philosopher buys a very cheap house only to find out there’s a reason it’s so cheap – it’s haunted.

Palmer said the idea was actually brought to them by composer Veronika Krausas and Giller Prize-winning author André Alexis.

“They came to us and said, ‘hey, do you want to do a puppet opera? André’s got an idea for a libretto and we’ll work on something,’” said Palmer.

“We said, ‘oh my god, yes, this is the opportunity we’ve been waiting for’ – to bring these two art forms together.”

Nathan Medd, managing director of performing arts at the Banff Centre, said the rarity of the show is something the centre is happy to get behind.

“What we have here is a very ambitious project, it’s a mingling of disciplines and that’s the kind of project that Banff Centre wants to be involved with,” he said.

If you’ve seen any of the Old Trouts puppet shows, you’ll know they often gravitate towards a dark type of comedy.

“It’s about ghosts and hauntings and going mad and committing suicide and murder and the after-world and the land of the dead,” he said.

“It’s all these kind of things that appeal to us as makers of fantastical creatures and impossible beings and spirits and ghosts and that kind of thing.”

Palmer said there’s something particularly exciting about joining opera with puppetry.

“Opera is a grand and extravagant form where you take every emotion and make it enormous, every line gets sung with such a force of beauty that it makes your cheeks blow out like you’re in one of those wind tunnels,” said Palmer.

“It’s about going beyond reality, and same with puppets, it’s about creating the surreal, the impossible, the fantastical.”

Meanwhile, Medd said he’s a fan of the Old Trouts himself and the show is nearly sold-out already.

“This year, it’s pulling from a bit of this and that and we couldn’t be more excited about the experiment. It’s a nearly sold-out crowd… So on May 24, the room will be brimming with energy,” he said.

“They have collaborated with outstanding artists across Canada and created incredible works, like they could be working on their own to create anything but they have proven themselves to be magnificent collaborators.”

The Ghost Opera will play at Eric Harvie Theatre at the Banff Centre on May 24 at 7:30 p.m. For more information or for tickets, visit www.banffcentre.ca.

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