I hope it's not cheating to write about a piece of theater I also acted in, but in the case of "Shatterer of Worlds" I had a really unique opportunity to be both actor and audience member, as well as being on hand while the piece came together -- all of these things were exciting. "Shatterer" takes it name from what Robert Oppenheimer said were his thoughts upon witnessing one of the first tests of the atomic bomb, quoting the Bhagavad Gita: "If the radiance of a thousand suns/ Were to burst at once into the sky/ That would be like the splendor of the Mighty one... I [Life] am become Death, the Shatterer of Worlds." Peter Schumann, the director of Bread and Puppet, explained to us that the play is not literally about the atomic bomb, it is in a way about the atomic age more generally, and what Peter sees as its tendency to bleakness and totalitarianism.

The first act of the work expresses this directly, portraying an abstract, brutal world dominated by the lonely sound of the wind machine and a giant clock. Strange puppet spirits wander unexplained through a landscape crowded with affectless people, who stop from time to time at the sound of a bell to answer the nonsense questions of a towering Kafkaesque bureaucrat. Even in this bleak scene though, a spiritual theme wins the day: The people erect huge god figures and worship them, opening flowers. After a final scene featuring a sea of vaguely threatening small puppet figures, the lights suddenly drop, and the tense audience is released from the theater for part two.

The second part of "Shatterer" is the part that was most inspiring to me: It is a ritual procession with masks and costumes, a funeral to bury the evidence of the oppressive bureaucracy of part one. The audience is released from the darkened theater to a magical scene of animals forming a band; together with others bearing lanterns, they all march together to the pine woods, there to take part in a musical, mystical ceremony. It is beautiful, and simple. Of all the things I saw and did at Bread and Puppet, I admired this procession and the magical atmosphere it created the most.

A modified version of "Shatterer" is touring to Boston and New York this fall as part of Bread and Puppet's 50th anniversary events. I wonder how they will reproduce the magic of part two without the special surroundings of the theater's home farm in Vermont, and the beautiful summer evenings, though. I hope they can!