February 21-March 7, 2009
Preview Feb. 21, opens Feb. 22.
The Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater, West Side Y
10 West 64th St., Manhattan

 Just in time for the Purim season, Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre will perform its "The Historye of Queen Esther, of King Ahasverus & of the Haughty Haman" from February 21 to March 7 at The Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater of the West Side Y, located on West 64th St. just West of Central Park West, Manhattan. The production features modernist marionettes and those from the Czech Puppetry repertoire and is recommended for family audiences.

Purim in 2009 will start on Tuesday, March 10 and will continue until Wednesday, March 11. In the Jewish calendar, a holiday begins on the sunset of the previous day, so observing Jews will celebrate Purim on the sunset of Monday, March 9.

This production is closely related to the Purim plays that are still enacted every year in Jewish communities around the world. It is based on the traditional script of itinerant Czech puppeteers. In 18th century Europe, "Queen Esther" was among the top "hits" of the Czech marionette repertoire. At the time, the only theater truly available in small towns and villages were shows by itinerant puppeteers. Their plays were a whimsical mixture of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous," heroic legends, and rudimentary pre-Shakespearean tragedies.

Plays with biblical themes were the oldest in the repertory of Czech Folk Puppeteers, closely followed by related legends, and later by stories featuring strong individuals like Faust and Don Juan. Just like Faust, the play about Queen Esther was probably influenced by companies of English players who performed in Prague and other Czech and Moravian towns from the end of the 16th century through 1620, returning again immediately after 30-year War. These companies performed a repertoire of plays with live actors and marionettes, besides showing various leaps, dancing bears, fire eating, fencing and other daring feats.

Czech puppeteers developed their own versions of the plays adding characters like comical peasants and the jester Kaspárek and his wife Kalupinka, obviously cousins of Punch and Judy. These itinerant puppeteers were largely illiterate and they traded the plays in their families by word of mouth. Since folk tradition, whether in plays or tales, has historically shown Jews as stock comical characters or worse, this older play is notable for its positive approach to Judaism.

Oral transmission of the texts, which was natural in the age of illiterate lower classes, was also the only way of copyright protection and the puppeteers initially resisted written records of their plays. Shortly after folk plays were first recorded in the 19th Century, the direct oral transmission began to fade away. A member of the Maizner family wrote the first manuscripts of "Queen Ester" in the 1820s; it was later combined with other versions of the play.

Under Austro-Hungarian, Nazi and Communist domination, Czech puppetry contained pointed political satire by concealing sharp criticism in familiar tales. Since independence, Czech puppet impresarios have experimented with multimedia effects and shattering illusion by having human actors perform opposite their wooden counterparts. Stylistically, Vit Horejs falls in with the prominent modernists of this form. Citing the 1997 production of "Hamlet," Time Magazine (Emily Mitchell) credited Horejs with "uniting the honored tradition with post-modern sensibilities, giving his mute figures from a bygone era a startling new place in the theater."

In this production of Queen Ester, downtown meets folk tradition. High and low, live performers and puppets of disparate sizes are blended for a startling comical and touching effect. The cast of puppets includes marionettes designed and constructed by Prague master carver Jakub Krejci, two marionettes composed from household and carpentry tools by Michelle Beshaw and Emily Wilson, and giant paper mache puppets made by CAMT's Associate Director Theresa Linnihan.

The actor/puppeteers are Deborah Beshaw, Vít Horejs, Ron Jones, Sarah Lafferty, Theresa Linnihan and Ronny Wasserstrom. Set and Costumes are by Theresa Linnihan. Puppets are by Jakub "Kuba" Krejcí, Václav Krcál (Haman), Michelle Beshaw and Emily Wilson (Kaspárek & Kalupinka).

The piece is expected to be a good fit for the Upper West Side, with its burgeoning Jewish community and avid family audiences.

This production is made possible in part with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and New York City Councilmember Rosie Mendez, District 2 Manhattan, Ministry of the Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic and with support from Materials for the Arts (A Program of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs/NYC Department of Sanitation, 7 Loaves, Inc. and private contributors.