An unconventional puppet show about a post-apocalyptic radioactive wasteland that is mixed with bits and pieces of “Romeo & Juliet,” “The Dark Crystal,” “Edward Scissorhands,” “The Little Mermaid,” “Metropolis” and “1984” – plus a narrator who carries a lobster phone? Count me in.
“The Immortal Jellyfish Girl,” written by Kirjan Waage and Gwendolyn Warnock, may initially sound like something out of “SpongeBob SquarePants.” After all, Bikini Bottom is home to Jellyfish Fields.
But in reality, this co-production of New York’s Wakka Wakka Productions and Norway’s Nordland Visual Theatre is the kind of meticulous piece of experimental theater that one might expect to find at LaMaMa (the legendary avant-garde theater hub in the East Village).
For some reason, it begins with about five minutes of chanting, with nothing else going on. After that, a man costumed as a fox (or rather a mix of fox and clown) takes over as a sort of jittery emcee, narrator, and commentator, and then finally the puppets (brought to life by multiple performer-technicians dressed in black) come on.
As the fox explains, it is the year 2555 and ecological calamity has destroyed the world and created two warring humanoid species (the technology-oriented “Homo Technalis” and the animal-oriented “Homo Animalis”), as demonstrated by a squid attack on a robot-like creature.
Aurelia (i.e. the Immortal Jellyfish Girl), who resides in a tank and was created by a giant turtle, is an amalgam of species, including jellyfish, human, turtle, frog, and even kangaroo. She dreams about the world beyond and eventually meets and becomes romantically involved with a Homo Technalis boy (who later somehow mutates into a bug with wings).
For the record, the “immortal jellyfish” is a real thing. It is a species of jellyfish (Turritopsis dohrnii) with the ability to turn back into a polyp and then rebuild itself, thus giving it the ability to potentially live forever.
By the show’s end, a prophecy has been fulfilled, everyone appears to be dead, and both the fox and the audience are left trying to make sense of what has happened over the past 80 minutes. The fox pathetically even tries to complete the show by picking up and voicing the puppets on his own.
“The Immortal Jellyfish Girl” makes for ideal far-out experimental theater, with an otherworldly and fully transporting design scheme (built upon intricate puppetry, lighting, sound, costumes, and projections) that evokes a classic Coney Island circus sideshow, ominous political overtones, wacky humor, and unapologetic strangeness – even if the plotting gets confusing.
“The Immortal Jellyfish Girl” is on view at 59E59 (59 E. 59th St.) through Feb. 19. More info at 59e59.org.
