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I had a front-row seat at Gigsville's Moulin Tradge: Puppet Karaoke Opera. Tradge Lamb's negotiations of Burner events bear some resemblance to the Adventures of Polly Nomial, except Moulin Tradge is a musical, and more complicated and gorier because it's based on a true story.

 

Above is Tradge Lamb as she starts out, innocent and pure. I was disturbed by the stuffed animal abuse but that's inevitable, that made the opera as poignant as it needed to be. When it's human actors having drama, or fictional characters in a book, I don't take it like that because they're not real. With human actors it's easy to not care, not to take it seriosuly when they get hurt -- it's all pretend. But here you have to! They are real. You abuse a puppet, burn it, pull its eye out, it's real, it's really abused. So it hits you hard.

One of the benefits of a regional event as opposed to Burning Man is that you can still see even if you show up late to a popular show. Below is a scene from Arrogant Satin Superstar, the glam rock opera.

	Text and images © 2007 D. Aline Lurie	-->