pictured: 3/8th scale Shockheaded Peter model
This project was for a graduate level design class at the University of Tennessee during the Spring Semester of 2014.
It was adapted as a musical performance by the Tiger Lillies (a cult British musical trio formed in 1989 by singer, Martyn Jacques; often described as the forefathers of Brechtian Punk Cabaret.-from their Facebook page).
To find out more about The Tiger Lillies visit their website
A Carnival of Damned Souls…thespians, burlesque dancers, musicians and sailors…
StruwwelPeter (Shockheaded Peter) is a collection of poems by Heinrich Hoffman. Each poem details the misfortune that befalls children who don’t listen to their parents. The concept was to turn this production into a travelling group of eternal, apathetic, alcoholic, and thoroughly damned players, who take their demented show on the road. Combining the best elements of sideshow, vaudeville, and burlesque, we turned this experience into a glorious “Devil’s Carnival”.
I also invite you to view the concept drawings.
Pre-show scene: During this portion, the cast realizes that they have neglected to install their cartouche, the mummified remains of Shockheaded Peter.
To the Children: During this scene, creepy children come out and gather around Santa Claus, who passes out presents (perhaps lumps of coal that have been gift wrapped). At the end of the song, Santa doffs his robe and removes his beard, revealing himself to be our sinister Master of Ceremonies, Mr. Bleach!
The Story of Cruel Frederick: Cruel Frederick is the juvenile version of Genghis Khan. In this scene he whips the clothes off of poor Mary (see concept sketches). He rips the wings off of birds. His reign of terror ends when he abuses a poor dog who is stealing out of the wings to get take healthy drink of Mr. Bleach’s whiskey. The dog beats Frederick. A bed rolls out and Frederick is put into it, awaiting a visit from the Doctor…
The Dreadful Story about Harriet and the Matches: Harriet is warned not to play with matches by her Siamese cats (puppets manipulated by Siamese twins). Ignoring their warning, she manages to catch herself on fire. Smoke billows from her hair, her dress reveals flame patterns on the underside and fabric flames shoot up from the floor. Gratuitous amounts of smoke later, she is gone, leaving only shoes and ashes (Harriet having disappeared through a trap door in the floor).
The Story of the Bully Boys: A shadow puppet screen descends behind the Mouth of Hell. Young toughs make fun of a shadow puppet carrying an umbrella behind the screen. A large Wizard rolls out from Stage Left. His robe opens up and ensemble cast members rush out grabbing the toughs and pulling them beneath the robes. The Wizard tracks out. Immediately a silhouette of the Wizard is seen behind the screen as he exacts his revenge on the disrespectful punks.
The Story of the Man That Went Out Shooting: A hunter walks across the stage as two dimensional trees track across. Cabaret dancers with large palm fronds reveal a mother rabbit. Another dancer with a sun headdress dances around the hunter, enticing him to rest beneath a tree. The Mother Rabbit steals his glasses and rifle. The hunter awakens and is chased around the stage by the Mother Rabbit. Ensemble members roll a well out over the trap door and the hunter falls in. The Mother Rabbit proceeds to shoot the hunter’s wife, and then accidentally shoots her own child (a stuffed rabbit that tracks out from Stage Right). The baby bunny explodes in a spray of cotton. The Mother Rabbit, deeply shaken, puts the rifle under her chin and pulls the trigger, blowing a spray of cotton out of the top of her own head.
The Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb: Following the excitement of the previous scene, our mid level curtain closes. Conrad is warned by his mother not to suck his thumb or The Great Tall Tailor will cut them off. She leaves and he ignores her warnings. The shadow of the Tailor hangs on the curtain, momentarily, before he rushes in quickly clipping Conrad’s thumbs. Manipulating pumps concealed within his costume, Conrad pumps blood all over the stage. This leads to Intermission since it is impossible for the play to continue without a cleanup. The last thing the audience sees before curtain close is the dog, in half-masted costume, walking out with a mop bucket.
The Story of Augustus Who Would Not Have Any Soup: This is our magic box trick. A large, ornate box is rolled onto the stage. The box is covered with grapes and has a large central goat head, suggesting something related to a Dionysian ritual. To avoid any suggestion of the Dark Arts, the box is painted Red, White, and Blue (of course). The box opens revealing an interior scene that utilizes forced perspective to seem far larger than it actually is. As poor Augustus gets progressively more emaciated, the box is closed and rotated, while the actor inside raises a different “body” in front of him. At the end, the actor is totally absent and only a desiccated corpse remains.
Interior of Box revealed.
The Story of Fidgety Philip: For this scene all of our curtains are out. Our Mouth of Hell is in. A black scrim forms the backdrop. Philip sits at a retro dining room table with his parents. As Philip becomes progressively fidgety, Ensemble cast members wearing black gloves manipulate the utensils that he throws, rocking him back and forth in his chair as well. After making quite a mess, Philip pulls the table cloth down upon himself.
The Story of Johnny Head-In-Air: Johnny wonders onto the stage before stepping up into a circus wagon that contains a treadmill and scrolling scenery (ostensibly controlled by an ensemble cast member turning a hand wheel). As the cast member grows tired, she stops turning the wheel and Johnny walks off the end, only to be saved by another quick thinking cast member who puts a step at the end of the circus wagon. He almost walks into a tree, which is quickly moved by ensemble, revealing the dog, who is still cleaning up from Fidgety Philip’s mess. Johnny trips over the dog. Recovering, he steps back up into the circus wagon which is manipulated by a refreshed ensemble member. Unfortunately, she, too, grows tired and Johnny walks right off the end of the wagon, face planting into the stage. However, according to the song, Johnny must fall in the river. Thinking quickly, a member of ensemble grabs the dog’s mop bucket and splashes Johnny with it.
The Story of Flying Robert: All Curtains with the exception of the Main Rag are completely out. A series of Portals are in, each depicting a circular pattern of increasingly angry clouds. Robert sits on a stool, Stage Right. Several attractive clouds entice him off of his stool to dance with them. As they dance, one cloud hooks a cable to him from behind and poor Robert is whisked away. Robert flies out. Successively smaller “puppet” versions of Robert are then quickly pulled across each successive portal until a tiny Robert finally disappears.
The Creative Team Responsible for this project include:
Scenic Designer: Jason Ammons
Costume Designer: Joscelyne Oktabetz
Lighting Designer: Kenny Foster