Canadian Stage presents Ignorance, an inventive (and completely adult) puppet documentary about the evolution of happiness from Calgary’s world-renonwed The Old Trout Puppet Workshop. The newest production from the troupe behind the international hit Famous Puppet Death Scenes will be Toronto beginning next week.

Ignorance is a puppet documentary about the evolution of happiness – from the thick-blooded hearts of the ancient caves, to the ethereal heaven of our light-speed future – it’s about where we all went wrong, and how we might find our way once again.

Photo Source:The Old Trout Puppet Workshop

Bouncing between primitive man and modern man, urban sprawl and prehistoric cave life, Ignorance blends live performance with comedy, over-sized puppet heads, balloons, lighting, sound and video effects. Puppeteers Nicolas Di Gaetanto, Trevor Leigh and Viktor Lukawski bring various characters to life on stage, becoming extensions of the hand-crafted puppets themselves, with Judd Palmer (artistic director and co-founder of The Old Trout Puppet Workshop) as the an omniscient narrator. A bleak and harsh Garden of Eden, designed by The Old Trout Puppet Workshop creative team, with animation from four artists, is the backdrop for this imaginative performance.

The production is The Old Trout Puppet Workshop’s first attempt at Open Creation – the entire show was written on the internet for all to see, with crowd-sourced comments, criticism and contributions. Learn more on the Ignorance Blog. Especially relevant in a time when communities are online, Ignorance addresses the age-old “ignorance is bliss” adage and poses the question: in our quest to know so much, have we lost a connection with what actually makes us human?

I had the pleasure of seeing The Old Trout Puppet Workshop’s Famous Puppet Death Scenes here in Toronto back in 2007. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was very creative; it posited some interesting questions, and made the audience take a minute to ponder about the scenes depicted on-stage. You can read my thoughts about it here. Since then, I’ve been hoping they’d come back with a new show!

Ignorance will be on stage at the Berkeley Street Theatre from November 27 to December 15. Performances run Monday through Saturday at 8 p.m. with matinees on Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. The performance runs 75 minutes with no intermission. Tickets from $22 to $49 are available online, by phone at 416-368-3110 or in person at the box office. For more details visit canadianstage.com.