A Puppet Who Just Wants to Eat His Sandwich ‘The Pigeoning,’ a Bunraku Play for Grown-ups
Laura Collins-HughesJuly 15, 2014: The office safety manual is Frank’s most trusted companion. When he suspects pigeons of plotting against him, he seeks its advice. “If you’re asking yourself, ‘Is there an interspecies conspiracy against me and me alone?,’ the answer is probably yes,” the book opines, speaking to Frank in a soothing female voice. And, really, doesn’t the bird pecking furiously at his windowpane look like it might be part of a cabal? The Pigeoning, Robin Frohardt’s exquisitely rendered, very funny bunraku puppet play for grown-ups, has returned to Here, where it had a brief, successful run last season. Set to a score by Freddi Price, the hourlong Pigeoning is a tender, fantastical symphony of the imagination about a man who wants simply to be left in peace, to work at his tidy desk or eat a sandwich unbothered on a park bench. This is harder for Frank than it sounds, first because of the germs that keep breaking his concentration, forcing him to scrub them from his nameplate or his cup. And then there are the flapping, cooing, threatening birds, obviously angling after more than just his lunch. Dirt and disorder make Frank feel unsafe, so he asserts control by launching a gumshoe-style investigation. Phobias aside, he is no Adrian Monk.
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