Mum News

Press Photos

- mum news -

Mum Puppettheatre announces its final production of the 2001-2002 Philadelphia theatre season! Rocking the Boat, directed and performed by Robert Smythe, runs May 22 - June 15

For Immediate Release: April 29, 2002

Philadelphia, PA - Mum Puppettheatre brings its thrilling 2001-2002 season to a close with the world premiere of Rocking the Boat, a new work by Mum Puppettheatre's Artistic Director Robert Smythe. Exploring the relationship of conjoined twins with elements of the Vietnamese water puppetry tradition, Rocking the Boat runs May 22 at through June 15 at Mum Puppettheatre located at 115 Arch Street. Opening night is May 30 at 7 PM. Performances begin at 8 PM., Wednesday through Saturday, and Sunday matinees begin at 2 PM. Due to a reception for an award from Creative Access there will not be a performance on Saturday June, 1 at 8 PM. Ticket prices range from $12 to $24. Please call the Mum Puppettheatre Box Office at 215-925-7686 for more information.

Rocking the Boat uses elements of Vietnamese water puppetry with Mum Puppettheatre's traditional wordless style to tell the story of conjoined twins who, as in recent cases in the international news, are brought an industrialized country to be separated.

"A number of things came together for me," said Rocking the Boat creator and director Robert Smythe, "which led to the development of this show. Chief among them are the relationships between a natural order and the modern world. We live at a time where technology forces us to make decisions before we're ready to do so. Rocking the Boat tries to put this in real, human terms."

In Vietnam, flooded rice paddies served as the stages for a unique style of puppetry where the surface of the water is used as the stage for scenes of everyday life during the change of seasons. "We are not aping a particular cultural style," says Smythe. "We're interested in what the presence of water means in a story like this."

In Rocking the Boat a pair of conjoined twins is separated, with only one sister surviving. After she returns home, her mother, like the mother of Elian Gonzalez, sacrifices everything to bring her daughter to a new life in another country. Once there the girl is faced with a number of hard decisions regarding her debt to her past and her possible future.

Rocking the Boat had its beginnings in 1993, when conjoined twins Amy and Angela Lakeberg were separated at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The girls were born with a joined heart and liver. Their heart was flawed, and the twins could not have survived together in the long term. Surgery involved sacrificing the weaker Amy in order to save Angela, whose chances of survival after surgery were also poor. The hospital where they were delivered advised against separation, but eventually the Children's Hospital in Philadelphia decided that there was an ethical obligation to attempt surgery in spite of the poor prognosis. Amy died during the operation and Angela lived only until 10 months, when she died of pneumonia. This case raised many issues about the separation of conjoined twins.

Since then there have been many cases of the separation of conjoined twins in the news, including the case of girls from Malta. 'Jodie' and 'Mary' were the pseudonyms used for Gracie and Rosie Attard, whose parents came to the UK from the Maltese island of Gozo for their birth. The twins were joined at the lower abdomen and spine, but because they had only one functional heart and one set of lungs, separation meant the inevitable death of one twin. 'Mary'/Rosie was described as having 'primitive brain functions', while 'Jodie'/Gracie showed normal mental development. If left unseparated, both would have died. Their parents opposed separation because as Roman Catholics they believed that it was wrong to take human life. The doctors on the case successfully appealed to the courts and won the right to separate the twins. Rosie died when surgeons cut off her blood supply while Gracie survived and is expected to lead a normal life.

The issue of parents seeking better lives for their children in other countries also gained international attention when the mother of Cuban-born Elian Gonzalez died while pushing her son toward freedom on the American coast.

There were several reports of conjoined twins born in Vietnam following the use of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, including the story of conjoined twin brothers, Viet and Duc, born near Plateau de Kontum in southern Vietnam in February, 1981. Connected at the hip, and sharing some internal organs, the two twins were medically separated in 1988 at Tu Du Hospital, two years after Viet had survived a critical brain disease. The two were separated and Duc is a healthy young man today, while Viet is also alive but in very poor health.

The technical format of Rocking the Boat transforms the theatre into a setting that is both intimate and thrilling.

One of the oldest theatre companies in Philadelphia, Mum Puppettheatre has won seven Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre. Enriched with international theatrical influences, Mum Puppettheatre is universal, transcending the boundaries of language. Located in Philadelphia's lively Old City neighborhood of art galleries and restaurants, Mum Puppettheatre is the region's only theatre dedicated solely to puppetry. Working without words, Mum Puppettheatre creates a resplendent mix of puppets, masks, mime, dance, and original music in every production. Mum Puppettheatre has traveled around the world, representing the United States at theatre festivals on four continents with what critics have called "the most enchanting, innovative, hauntingly beautiful productions any of us will ever see."

The 2002-2003 season has been announced! Be sure to visit the Mum Puppettheatre website at www.mumpuppet.org to learn about the exciting productions planned for the next year.

# # #