The Wonderful Imagination of Ronnie Burkett
When you stop turning with the world, you may just trip into the margins of reality. This fall, the Thousand Islands Playhouse hosts none other than Ronnie Burkett’s touring production, Wonderful Joe. Having received international acclaim for his innovative and evocative puppetry, Canadian theatre legend Burkett has brought to the Gananoque stage an unprecedented fragment of repertoire for an adult theatre audience.
Wonderful Joe’s story follows the final adventure of its titular character, Joe Pickle, and his undying dog Mister. Evicted from his apartment to make way for an upcoming gentrification project, Joe ventures out into the neighborhood to contemplate the loss of his home. As he traverses the all-too-familiar streets, he confronts the facts of his past both real and imagined. Time is not an easy line to walk, and there is no one less equipped for the circus than our neighbours down on Elaine Avenue. Upon hearing news of their longstanding community’s upcoming demolition, residents of the historic gay village come out of the woodwork to greet and goodbye for what may be the last time.
Held in the Firefox theatre, Burkett’s act is a one-man-voices-all marionette show— provocative, heartfelt, and sobering— Wonderful Joe is mystically unique. The play achieves a sense of truth unchained by the confines of logic. Entire worlds are bursting from the heart of its creator: a surreal concoction delivered with such a clarity and earnestness that it validates its own unreality. Here’s Santa Claus in a nightclub with his old friend Jesus Christ— and oh! Here’s that old cow, who’s finally jumping over the moon. The rise of the curtain is Elaine Avenue’s Big Bang, and Ronnie Burkett harnesses its spontaneous genesis in a mix of script and improvisation. Here becomes a world of make-believes and make-believers.
This play made me want to call my friends. It made me want to go downtown, go home, go dance, go cry. Ronnie Burkett has crafted a world of detriment and dreams.
As an actor, Burkett is gorgeous. Neighbours differ, not just in quality of voice, but in affect of speech. Dialogue patterns are drastically different according to which character is enacting the words, though conversations rally in Burkett’s unrelenting comic style. This script is extremely word heavy, and the audience holds on to every one: jokes fly by and are caught by eager ears, enraptured by his humour and delivery. Burkett handles a bucketful of whippersnapper dialogue without rushing the story. The effect is fantastic as it is simple: we get to spend the day on one last wonderful adventure with Joe.
Brukett’s writing takes you into its steadfast stride, exploring the ticking time bomb of progress and the threat it poses to enduring communities. The suspension of the second shoe is felt right from the initial word of the upcoming demolition: we know that our kaleidoscope of brilliant characters will drop with it. Sifting between modes of storytelling, a metatheatrical production put on by the in-play theatre troupe, the Trash Alley Players, presents a series of monologues and morals. Tackling the subject of the “social dinosaur”, an ex-punk, gender non-conforming sex worker, and an indigenous mother each outline the scope and scorn of their social status. We hear both the bitter death rattle of a historic city stretch, and the sweetness of its parting words.
The set, as everything in Wonderful Joe does, shifts in clever ways. Lovingly assembled by Shopdogs, the ensemble depicts not the raging skyscrapers synonymous with cityscapes of modernity, but graffitied walls along an ordinary stretch of sidewalk. Characters pass in a flurry of panic and meanderie, the set meeting them at level instead of shrinking them. An incredibly intentional set intuitive to the eccentric and ever-changing nature of Wonderful Joe, Aiden Sparks model combined with the scenic painting of Daniel Barkley brings the infamous Elaine Avenue to life.
These puppets are beautifully designed by Ronnie Burkett himself. So much thought went into creating these oft-rejected personalities. Each puppet is so expressive in terms of build and performance that it is almost impossible to imagine their faces remain wood-cast and stationary. My personal favourite, though it is a difficult choice, must be Mother Nature’s ghastly, tattered showgirl look as she performs a raunchy bar number (scored by John Alcorn and sung by Burkett himself). The controls rigged by Greg Ballora and strung by Marcus Jarmin help get these endearing characters on their feet.
Genuinely fresh, shocking, and cackle-worthy, Wonderful Joe introduces audiences to an unparalleled avenue of theatre. Ronnie Burkett is in a league of his own. Somehow contemplative and explosive at once, the fantastical day-in-the-life grapples with the hardships of society alongside the hard-won nature of community. Wonderful Joe sustains the belief that maybe, anything really could happen. Perhaps, if you believe enough, the cow really will jump over the moon. Maybe, she’ll even let you hitch a ride.
‘Wonderful Joe’ runs at the Thousand Island Playhouse until October 4, 2026. You can find tickets and other information here.
