Puppets Chloe and Meraki, created by Honeyball Puppetry, image provided by the company
Presented by Honeyball Puppetry
A group of otters water dance together in a whimsical sea, but suddenly one of them is left alone. To make room for a new house, a tree is uprooted and discarded. Then another. It isn’t long before all of the trees have been replaced by city buildings. The clear blue sky is obscured by brownish smog. And people crowd onto the scene with their coffees and cell phones and disposable stuff they throw into the water.
I’ve seen several children’s shows with an environmental theme. Some have even been sophisticated enough to suggest the complex circumstances that have lead to our current situation and the obstacles faced when attempting to slow, much less reverse, our trajectory. Chloe and Meraki, a puppet show written and performed by Robin Polfuss, Lindsay Lee, Maiko Taku, is more generalized in its messaging: that we’re messing the world up and it would be better if we stopped.
At the centre of the story is Chloe, a young, playful girl who feels dejected when neither of her parents want to spend time with her. After some flippant pats on the head, they go back to their cell phones and the hustle and bustle of their urban landscape. Chloe happens upon the lone surviving otter, Meraki, stuck in a discarded cup. After setting Meraki free, the two become friends.
The puppets themselves are perhaps a little too small for even a moderately sized venue, but they do have plenty of personality. It doesn’t help that St. Volodymyr Institute isn’t a venue that’s great for distance viewing; the first couple of rows are the place to be if you want a decent experience.
Most of the action is conveyed through mime, though there are some key vocalizations that help ground the movement. It’s a predominantly visual experience. Particularly effective is the gradual accumulation of garbage as characters toss random waste into the sea, eventually leading to a impressively gross looking tarp of miniature garbage that undulates like polluted water.
This has an unambiguously happy ending where everything is neatly resolved, not a choice I think is the strongest. I’m a little meh on the We can clean it all up easily if we just choose to takeaway, but the very final moment—one of the performers hugging the puppet family to her as they lights go down—is genuinely touching.
This is for younger children—6 and up—and they seemed suitably engaged by it. I could even hear some children behind me discussing aspects as the performance unfolded, helping each other through moments that could read differently from child to child. Perhaps my favourite moment was this: as the performers toss bits of junk onto the stage and the sight gets particularly unruly, a small voice exclaimed: “Oh, no, that’s a big mess!” And, indeed, it was!
And though I wished for a more challenging resolution; I can’t deny the visceral satisfaction of seeing that mess finally cleaned up. And even how right it feels that we imagine that on a larger scale.
Chloe and Meraki
@ Toronto Fringe Festival
running July 3 to 14, 2024
St. Volodymyr Institute (620 Spadina Ave)
running time: 40 minutes
