Our Domestic Resurrection Circus, a performance by Bread and Puppet Theater, directed by Peter Schumann, Theater for the New City, New York, NY, December 16–19, 2021.
For more than half a century, Bread and Puppet’s raucous circuses have delighted—and agitated—audiences with puppets and politics. Reinvented each year, Our Domestic Resurrection Circus is a joyous call-to-action. As the company’s “Cheap Art Manifesto” states: “Art wakes up sleepers! Art fights against war and stupidity! Art sings Hallelujah!”
Running just over an hour long, the circus featured diverse acts ranging from somber laments to frenetic capers. Standard circus feats, including stilts and clowns, were integrated with more text-based, overtly political acts on subjects like the history of reparations, the Israeli occupation of Palestine, advancing abortion restrictions, as well as the war in Afghanistan (and its bloody aftermath). Throughout, the declarative narration was punctuated by the on-stage brass band’s bombastic underscore. While some...