dancing tomatoes and a mermaid child

just got back from our weekly art event. it was called "Dr. Egg and the Man With No Ear." and it was 75% puppets. about genetic experiments. and it originated in australia. and it was AWESOME!
i was kinda nervous about it, it sounded weird. i'd heard that shows at Redmoon theatre are kind of hit or miss. but i was pleasantly surprised how good it was. they combined projections, puppets, and silent actors with music and a storyteller narrator. the narrator was exaggerated and funny, had a jim carey quality to him. it was good. the puppets themselves were incredible! they moved so well, so realistically. for one scene of a girl swimming, it took 3 puppeteers to move it. they way they had to dance around each other must have taken a lot of practice. the mix of projections and puppets that switch to actors worked so well. and the music added a sense of wonderment and mystery, made it light and childlike.
all of this makes it sound fun and happy- but it was NOT a children's show. it was played out like a children's show- the exaggerated acting and clown makeup. and the story itself was very simplified, with humor that a child would enjoy. but the theme of genetic modification, growing body parts in a box, a mutated mermaid child that almost gets killed: these things bring up very mature questions. how far is too far when it comes to science? what should be allowed? can we halt progress and discovery for fear of creating monsters? what is ethical? what do you do with a genetic mutant if you create one? who decides what is moral? i found the contrast between the way it was presented and what its message very interesting.
the show was fasicious and exaggerated to show it's point, and some people might find it to be "anti-science," "anti-progress;" but i don't think so. i think it just warns us to be careful how far we push. there are limits- there are boundaries that shouldn't be crossed. the result probably won't be a tomato with chicken legs or a fish with ears. the result would be a loss of consciousness of right and wrong. this argument has been carried through the years, this fear of what science is capable of. mary shelley's frankenstein said the same thing.
it was a really good show, and it was done wonderfully.