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Dragons & Mythical Beasts

Dragons & Mythical Beast

The Underbelly, 

By Luisa Hahn

The beautiful mythical beast puppets – ranging in size from fitting onto a person’s palm to barely fitting on the stage – are the rightful focus of this show. Anticipating silence is followed by excited murmurs and speechless gasps each time a new magical being enters the stage. Volunteers from the audience must face them in six tasks to prove themselves worthy heroes and hopefully be rewarded by the appearance of the legendary Indrik, king of all animals.

Guided by hero trainer Dave (Ben Galpin) the audience and participants learn that rather than violently defeating the beasts, a trick is involved in each of the tasks. The griffin is distracted by a tasty meal of a bin bag, the tooth fairy is bartered with, the Baku takes a nightmare in exchange for a desired substance, the mountain trolls can make diamonds from coal, the unicorn respects who respects them, and the dragon’s anger vanishes once its toothache is soothed. The puppets for each beast are not only beautifully crafted, but also masterfully manipulated - by at times three puppeteers. The most awe-invoking of them is the shiny unicorn, while the best puppeteering performance is given by the tooth-fairy (Will Palmer).

The character of Dave fills the stereotype of a cowardly but gentle son of a successful man (here Chiron, trainer of heroes like Hercules from Greek mythology), who is intended to be charmingly clumsy and create some laughs for the adults in the audience. His incapability may become a bit frustrating to watch when he is startled or trips for the 12th times in 30 minutes, but with the final message of the show: that heroes are not those who slay the most monsters but those who “are kind and only take to give”, the charm outweighs the silliness.