When arriving at HERE, an off-off Broadway theater in NYC, I had no idea what to expect from a full-length puppet show for adults. What I did not imagine was just how deeply moving this tragic and very human tale of a man waiting for guests to arrive at his birthday party would turn out to be. Bill’s 44th is a creative masterpiece, a wordless puppet show for grown-ups with an original recorded score, that cuts right to the heart of the human desire for love.
When the puppet, Bill, enters the stage, the two puppeteers moving with choreographed precision behind him, it seems that this is going to be a comedy. Bill sets up for his party, hanging the streamers, bringing out the snacks, pouring the punch. It is physically and visually brilliant, with perfect comic timing and impressive team work as the two puppeteers bring his character to life.
As time ticks onwards and it becomes clear that no one is coming to his party, Bill’s attempts to stay positive begin to breakdown. He throws his wristwatch into the punch; he flings the balloons; he cries silent rage into the emptiness. There are moments of hope that turn out to be nothing: footsteps outside the door; a pizza delivery at the wrong address; a package from his mother. By the time Bill has conjured a make-believe party with the crudités and balloons as his guests, I could not contain my tears. Perhaps it is the puppet’s step of removal from the realism of using human actors that makes the pain and loneliness so real. We can see ourselves in Bill, that attempt to put on a brave face and hide our vulnerability, when really we are all terrified that no one is going to turn up to the party.
Bill is joined by a cast of puppets that bring his desires and fears to life. There is a human-sized carrot stick, a party of balloons with inked on smiley faces, a VHS recording of his child-self performed by a little puppet blowing out his birthday cake candle year after year, and, terrifyingly, a demon baby version of himself that crawls across the walls and throws itself at his throat. Bill’s interior world is brought to life and in the space of his loneliness he finds himself in conversation with his past, the little boy who grew up into a brutal world and the man who never lost hope despite the endless rejections.
He casts out the demon and dances with the child puppet, a beautiful ending after an emotionally exhausting descent into despair. Bill’s 44th is a remarkable production that will have you laughing, crying, desperately searching through your bag for tissues you did not think you’d need. Intensely relatable and created with a kind of mental freedom from convention and realism that brings it to life so powerfully, I cannot recommend enough.
Performing now in NYC and will be at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August.
Created by Dorothy James & Andy Manjuck
Puppeteers Andy Manjuck, Dorothy James, and Jon Riddleberger,
Composer Eamon Fogarty,
Puppet Design by Dorothy James,
Sound Design by Andy Manjuck,
Lighting Design by M. Jordan Wiggins
Dramaturg Helena Pennington
Additional Set/Prop Construction by Peter Russo, Joseph Silovsky, & Taryn Uhe
Showing until July 28
Running time: 55 minutes, no intermission
HERE, 145 6th Avenue New York, NY 10013