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Snake In the Basement

by Liebe Wetzel Lunatique Fantastique

review in SF Bay Guardian May 24, 2000 (Brad Rosenstein)
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'Snake': superb

Local puppeteer Liebe Wetzel made a splash at last year's Fringe
Festival with Naked Foam and Other Objects in Predicaments, a
funny and surprising collection of sketches created by
manipulating little more than a sweatshirt, PVC pipe, and foam.
Now Wetzel and her ensemble, Lunatique Fantastique, have
returned to Exit Theatre's new café space with a 45-minute puppet
play, Snake in the Basement: The Prosecution of Rev. Bill Pruitt.

The piece is based on a recent case in Wetzel's native Dallas, in
which several women brought charges of sexual molestation
against a Presbyterian minister, many of the abuses committed
when they were children under his care at missions abroad. Other
than a bit of narration and song, the show is nearly wordless,
portraying an archetypal tale of a man of God being tempted by
the devils of his own nature, abusing the bodies and souls of
women in his church, and ultimately being called to answer for his
crimes.

But that synopsis doesn't begin to account for the often
remarkable power of the images Wetzel and her company evoke
or the density of the associations they weave with the simplest of
means. When a narrator begins to read of the charges against
Pruitt in a newspaper, the accusatory newsprint transforms into a
den of writhing snakes, then mutates again to depict the body of
the man himself. The joyful exuberance and innocence of a young
girl, beautifully rendered by the leaps and giggles of a crisp white
napkin, is horribly crippled after her abuse; the napkin wilts and is
literally tied in a knot.

This is pure theater: responding to the sparest suggestions, we
create the piece finally in our own imaginations. Director Jeff Raz
maintains a playful but appropriately uneasy tone throughout, and
Wetzel and her nearly invisible black-clad ensemble produce a
compelling world with seamless precision. It's rare enough to find
a company dedicated to serious puppet theater for adults, but
Wetzel and her collaborators already seem poised to tackle even
more complex and detailed narratives. Don't miss this exceptional,
intelligent, singular work.

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