Modern Times Theater Presents… The Perils of Mr. Punch, Episode #73:

“Let’s Disagree to Agree”

Punch and Judy are back for the latest installment of their centuries-old adventure.

But, they can’t seem to agree on anything. He says tomato, she says eggplant, and they’re

both looking at a turnip. Meanwhile, the alligator sharpens his teeth, the baby sitter is a fox,

and the baby is, well, a baby. Will Punch and Judy put their quarrels aside and get “All

Together Now”, or will they double down on their trouble?

Happy ending or not, Mr. Punch will perform his traditional grump-ectomee on the

audience. In this all ages entertainment extravaganza, children will ascend to new heights

of uncontrollable laughter, and parents will actually leave their phones in their pockets. It’s

a low-tech old-time spectacle, as entertaining to the masses of today as it was three

hundred years ago.

The hand puppets are created from up-cycled designer trash and performed in an

eccentric itinerant puppet stage. The show is hosted per tradition by a “bottler”, the uku-

lady Rose Friedman. Justin Lander, showman of the absurd, portrays all the characters.

The program is rounded out with live music played on a variety of instruments, from the

cornet to the bicycle pump.

Modern Times Theater has been adapting and updating Punch and Judy puppet

shows, creating Vaudeville acts, and writing original novelty songs for over a decade. They

pursue a radically divergent model of art making, creating venues in unlikely locations, and

revitalizing the historic, run-down, and defunct. Working in populist theater forms, they

seek to reinvent and reimagine classic American entertainment that the whole family can

enjoy.

Free, all are welcome! At the East Craftsbury Presbyterian Church. Supported by a grant from the NEK Fund of the Vermont Community Foundation.