The Aethernomicon (image heavy)

[Madfishmonger]

This summer at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival, a friend of mine put on a puppet play. He did the same last year, but this year went all out on the marionettes. He doesn't really have internet access, so I'm posting the pictures. I did the sewing for the play (costumes, curtains etc), and was very happy with the results. I made my first pair of pants for a puppet.

The story revolved around Abdolos - shunned from society for having read the forbidden tomes and for daring to question the wisdom of its leaders. Sent into space with his eyes and tongue removed (puppet gore is so much fun), he is found by the curious god Azahir, who takes a liking to him and grants him a new life....sort of. He pilots alone (with Azahir tagging along to mess with him) into the deepest parts of space where he finds dark and terrible secrets about the origin of humanity...and Cthulu.

More information can be found at the Watch and Spectacle Puppet Company's website (http://members.shaw.ca/a_nod/).

[Madfishmonger]

More pics

[Madfishmonger]

Cthulu is about 6 feet long and takes three people to manipulate.

Thanks for looking :)

[Aseyngel]

WOW how can you anything but love this concept. The dolls (?) are great - and (as far as my madness goes) fully in compliance with the Cthulhu-mythos.

As someone who used to play the Cthulhu RPG I would say: Please deduct 5 points from your sanity-score.

How does one come up with a concept like that? Sunday school?

Would you mind doing a tour in Denmark? ;-)

[Madfishmonger]

My friend is a Lovecraft fiend, he knows the mythos inside and out. I lost many sanity points sewing those curtains! I, personally, would love to go to Denmark, but I don't know if the troupe is up for a whirlwind European tour :P

[KingUnicorn]

I lost many sanity points sewing those curtains!

Haha! You, sir, have just scored a gold star for obscure reference. And thanks for sharing all of this. A Lovecraft-inspired puppet show? This is certainly something we need here in Atlanta, given we host the Center for Puppetry (http://www.puppet.org/) Arts.

They put on an event called Xperimental Puppet Theater (XPT) (http://www.puppet.org/perform/xpt07.shtml) every year (which a few of us in ATL are tempted to commit to). Perhaps this is an opportunity your friend's troupe might be interested in exploring?

Love the raw look of these designs and the cyberpunkish mess of Cthulhu's tentacles. Thanks for sharing!

~KU

[Madfishmonger]

I'm sure the troupe would love to travel with this production, but it's very expensive.
I'm a huge nerd, so I'm happy to get more nerd points :P

[Akitsu]

Really good stuff! I especially love the youtube preview on the web page... which just makes me want to see the whole thing.

You may want to pass on that I think they should sell DVDs of the performance... which would I'm sure help them with further productions. I may be broke, but I'd gladly shell out $10-$15 for the opportunity to see it... since I'm not ever going to be out that way.

It's also a great way to expose the troupe's work to a bigger audience, perhaps opening doors... doors to the unknown! ^_^

Here's a link to the youtube video... creepy as all hell to see these things in motion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ3zKmodpkM

[Aseyngel]

Sign me up for 3 DVD's as well - they are great for X-mas presents!

[MurphAI]

It reminds me of candide Dx Especially the image with the skeleton and gasmask guy.

[Madfishmonger]

Thanks guys, sorry I haven't been on here in a while. I'll pass it along to the Puppet Master, it was a great show to be a part of and I enjoyed it thoroughly. There's more videos being added to YouTube all the time.