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The Cabinet
The nooks and crannies of Redmoon’s Cabinet hold an impressive number of haunting images. In a loose adaptation of the 1920 silent film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (a landmark of German expressionism), Maher tells the tale of megalomaniac madman Caligari from the perspective of Cesare, his somnambulant slave. The action takes place in the various compartments of a 14-foot-tall cupboard, within which five puppeteers pop up (and sometimes down, dangling from scaffolding) to manipulate stick puppets, shadow puppets and pop-up books; both performers and props are rendered in chalky black-and-white.
First seen in 2005 at the Viaduct, The Cabinet is a dark, gorgeous inversion of Redmoon’s sprawling outdoor aesthetic, a miniaturized spectacle that still hews to the company’s bent for contraptions. A gramophone issues forth from a cabinet door and unfolds itself; as it cranks up, we hear the recorded voice of Cesare narrating his torturous story of being forced to kill in a sleepwalking trance induced by Caligari (the voice is that of frequent Maher collaborator Colm O’Reilly). The puppeteers on stage—or in stage?—remain silent but offer their own commentary, serving as both operators and observers of Lisa Barcy and Scott Pondrom’s remarkably expressive puppets. Maher’s script is typically esoteric and erudite, as intricate and mesmerizing as the choreography of Stalling’s puppeteers. Poor Cesare’s waking nightmare is the stuff of theatrical dreams.
