Happenstance Theatre: Death and the Fool

 Created in the style of the traditional medieval morality play, "Death and the Fool" is a carnivalesque manners play that subverts the natural fear of death into farce through comedy, puppetry, song, dance and pantomime.  The five player ensemble is a resident company that has performed together as "Happenstance Theatre" not for many years.  They, very much like the troubadours they are portraying in this play have no set home.  Instead they pop-up! at the behest of other companies, venues for limited engagements.  This one at Woolly Mammoth's rehearsal studio is a two day affair with 4 performances (matinee and evening).

With little to no overhead, the five member ensemble also charges a pittance for their entertainments--$25 in this case.  But don't let the price fool you--these Merry thespians are endowed with myriad talents.  Vocally, instrumentally (Many medieval replicas of horns, recorders, harps, lyres, drums, timbrels, whistles and what-nots!  The play opened with a marionette scene utter spellbinding using marionettes that the actors had carved and assembled!  

At one point a pair of soothsayers arrived and opened up the floor to audience questions.  One particularly cheeky audience member asked when our current "Monarch" would meet death?  Presumably the scythe wielding black robed specter in the show.  After entering their trace in call and response fashion, they replied: "not...soon...enough."  And the audience was in an uproar of laughter and delight.

And Delight is the perfect word for such an historically inspired, yet contemporarily relevant production!