Reviews for Trouble Puppet Theatre Company Performances
Review: The Strange Case of Edward Hyde and Dr. Jekyll by Trouble Puppet Theatre Company
by David Glen Robinson
Published on November 02, 2014
Trouble Puppet Theater Company has opened a new work adaptation of classic popular literature, The Strange Case of Edward Hyde and Dr. Jekyll, at Salvage Vanguard Theatre on the east side. Admiring fans of Trouble Puppet have waited a while for a new production from the intrepid puppeteers, and they will find the results well worth the wait. This new work shows theatrical growth while retaining the freshness and keen imagination for which Trouble Puppet …
Review: The Crapstall Street Boys by Trouble Puppet Theatre Company
by David Glen Robinson
Published on March 03, 2014
Trouble Puppet Theatre Company has stepped to the fore in current Austin theatre with its reprise of The Crapstall Street Boys. A shorter version of the concept played in 2012 in the Fronterafest Long Fringe festival. Lest anyone take a “been there, done that” attitude toward the new Crapstall, a reassurance: this fuller realization of the story is well worth a revisit. The Crapstall Street Boys centers on the misfortunes of You Lad, who opens the story …
Review: The Head by Trouble Puppet Theatre Company
by David Glen Robinson
Published on October 06, 2013
The seductive appeal is definitely to the inner child, even though the entertainment is strictly for adults. We view this parade of images from our own limbic systems.
A miniature mechanical man emerges from a cloud of steam. A ruffled orange and yellow bird squawks obscenities and defecates in the eyepieces of a telescope. A lizard-like thing in wrought iron knee boots flies around the room mounting inanimate objects until someone threatens to get the hose. These are all images in The Head, the latest production of puppet master Connor Hopkins’ Trouble Puppet Theatre Company, set inside a human being’s mind. The model …
Review: The Crapstall Street Boys by Trouble Puppet Theatre Company
by Michael Meigs
Published on January 27, 2012
The table action is quick and menacing, presenting a grim dog-eat-dog story -- almost literally -- as YouLad is cast into subhuman circumstances.
Perhaps it's inherent to the art form, but I did have a moment of wondering whether we ought to be concerned about our Connor. The Crapstall Street Boys is captivating puppetry and story telling, as is always the case with the Trouble Puppet Theatre Company, a crew of talented and devoted colleagues and acolytes who've gathered around Connor Hopkins. This time the approach is announced as "Czech puppetry" -- small articulated figures at the end of …
Review: The Crapstall Street Boys by Trouble Puppet Theatre Company
by Hannah Bisewski
Published on January 27, 2012
The sheer morbidity of The Crapstall Street Boys may remind you of how dark the fairytales of your childhood really were. Maybe this particular fairytale isn’t much of a parody after all.
As part of Austin’s 2012 Fronterafest Trouble Puppet Theatre Company stages performs a haunting and unapologetically macabre piece at their home venue the Salvage Vanguard Theatre. The Crapstall Street Boys by TP leader Connor Hopkins tells the story of a factory employing boys, located in the heart of a town overrun by monsters. YouLad’s parents sell him to the factory in exchange for the money that will buy them a “monster masher” to protect themselves, and he starts …
Review: Austin Puppet Incident 2011 by Trouble Puppet Theatre Company
by Hannah Bisewski
Published on December 11, 2011
Glass Half Full Theater and Trouble Puppet Theater Company are very Austin. Forget your notions of puppetry as entertainment for kids. These folks have serious, dramatic things to say.
Trouble Puppet Theatre Company's brand of inventive, challenging entertainment is so strong here in Austin that the company can fill up the Salvage Vanguard Theatre for two weekend nights with a miscellany from students at their puppetry workshop. Artistic Director Connor Hopkins shared his workshop for a month with collaborator Caroline Reck of Glass Half Full Productions and her students. Mind you, there were few novices among them -- performers at the Austin Puppet Incident included …