Trafika Europe 3 - Latvian Sojourn

Jacob’s Puppet Theatre

“Well, son, you’ve already grown up, on your tenth birthday I’m giving you this gift, like a completely perpendicular cream torte, it’s a puppet theatre I built myself!” The inside of a white cylinder. Fragility. In the foreground a beggar appears, who calls himself the Sun, because he’s caught a bit of it, and if you look into his eyes you can become dizzy or get sunstroke. From the wings a barrel of tar is pushed out, the beggar hates that and ignores it. Then from the other side comes a hunchback, reeling and puffing, with a Mephistopheles mask pulled over his face. Satan grabs some tar with a teaspoon and, splash, throws it on the beggar’s head. The beggar curses at first, in the end begins to whimper and spit saliva. The hunchback throws a pinch of tar back. Masses flood over. Then the bell jingles, because there’s a confrontation of white and black strength. This is an eternal battle, and the victor can’t be determined. This repeats a couple of times. Bells jungle, and flingings of tar form the background. In the heat of battle a meat grinder with the mouth of a bear, exhaling the smell of ground beef, its handle a foreshortened feathered leg, lumbers to center stage. The meat grinder dips a foot into the tar and, turning the leg in a circle, pitches. A ball hits the Sun above the eyebrow.

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