Hand-Made Puppets, Costumes in Theater Department’s Skriker

The Wesleyan Theater Department presented Caryl Churchill’s The Skriker Nov. 19, 20, 21 and 22 in the Center for the Arts Theater.

The play was directed by Bob Bresnick, visiting assistant professor in theater with costume designs and puppet designs by Leslie Weinberg, artist in residence in theater.

Churchill describes the title character in The Skriker as a “polluted, not-believed-in nature spirit who comes up to the world to get love, attention and revenge.” The Skriker tries to enlist the help of two friends: one pregnant and one who has killed her child. With tragic poetry and stunning linguistic pyrotechnics, the play examines the disturbing forces that have led us to the brink of ecological destruction.  

The production used puppet and dance theater, and was constructed from post-Wesleyan consumer waste.

The chorus included a black dog, green ladies, a horse, piglike-men and women, “Rawheadandbloddybones,” and other characters who dance, sing, throw rocks and perform with puppets.  The Skriker appeared as a mental patient, homeless woman, American woman, pink fairy, child, young man, school chum, older man and hospital patient.

Photos of The Skriker below. (Photos by Olivia Bartlett Drake)