BWW Reviews: THE CARDINALS Has Its Charms, But Little Clarity

A traditional puppet theatre is placed front and center at The Public's Martinson Hall, but half the story of The Cardinals, presented by the United Kingdom's Stan's Café as part of this year's Under The Radar Festival, is what visibly takes place off-stage.

Very few words are spoken during the 100 minute performance, most of them in intentionally inaudible hushed tones, so one must read the program notes to get the gist of the somewhat convoluted setup.

A trio of red robed holy men (Gerard Bell, Graeme Rose and Craig Stephens), assisted by their Muslim stage manager (Rochi Rampal), are on an evangelical mission to broaden knowledge of the Bible with their traveling puppet shows, but moments before the scheduled performance, it's discovered that the puppets are missing. Fortunately, there just happen to be racks of costumes conveniently set up backstage.

So the bulk of the piece, created and staged by the company, consists of well-executed choreography depicting the madly improvised dashes to insert designer Miguel Angel Bravo's prop pieces onto the stage while donning costumes to represent silent tableaus of The Garden of Eden, The Crucifixion and other events from the testaments old and new.

The joke is the solemn seriousness with which they approach their silly task, and at first it all seems like genial family fun, particularly when the stage manager must take time out for prayers (Did they confer with her about the show time?) and the cardinals must increase their effort.

Gradually their presentation becomes more uncomfortably opinionated. A baby is brutally murdered during the Crusades, a tank anachronistically appears several hundred years before its invention and their pageant starts covering World War II and more recent terrors such as suicide bombings.

Though not without its charms, The Cardinals can use some clarity in its intention and a good deal of shaving in order to get its message across.

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