Puppet masters

You could opt for haunted houses, freaky films or clichéd costume parties this Halloween. Or you could go for something truly creepy: puppet shows for grown-ups. Not suitable for young children, these shows feature dolls behaving badly, selling their souls, spewing salty language and even getting it on. Here are your tickets to red-hot puppet-on-puppet action.

Blair Thomas and Company
A veritable puppetgasm, Blair Thomas’s newest avant-garde play, Hard Headed Heart: A Chicago Neighborhood Tour, uses hand, shadow and marionette creations as vehicles for adapting other artists’ work to the stage. Divided into three parts, the play includes a puppet-filled interpretation of a Louis Armstrong song and a visual translation of the Wallace Stevens poem “13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.” Thomas also gets dirty with a risqué tale of matrimony. Victory Gardens Theater, 2433 N Lincoln Ave (773-871-3000). Fri 30 at 8pm; $20, advance $15.

Felt
Proving that no audience can resist laughing with (and sometimes at) a puppet with a walker, the improv comedy troupe Felt isn’t afraid to let its fucked-up sense of humor shine. Pushing R- (and sometimes X-) rated dolls to their limit—we’re talking full-on puppet orgies, which resemble Sesame Street characters doin’ the nasty—Felt’s Wednesday night residency at iO is always deliciously bawdy and side-splittingly funny. iO, 3541 N Clark St (773-880-0199). Wed 4 at 8pm, $5.

Puppetry of the Penis
Forget strings and socks (and anything kid-related); in this show, the “puppets” are made out of live penises, scrotums and testicles. Contorting their ding dongs into 40 sympathy-inducing positions with names like the Eiffel Tower and the Atomic Mushroom, two “genital origamists” perform the entire show nude. Viewers interested in turning their own sex organs into a novelty act can learn the trick of the month at puppetryofthepenis.com (October features the Hamburger). Lakeshore Theater, 3175 N Broadway (773-472-3492). Dec 4–6, at 7:30pm, $39.50.

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