Sapientia

Montreal’s Scapegoat Carnivale's award-winning show Sapientia will have its US Premiere at the International Puppet Fringe Festival NYC. Sapientia is a rare production from the first female playwright, 10th-century writer Hroswitha of Gandersheim. To stage this story, objects theatre is used, a form of puppetry where performers animate everyday objects to tell a story, e.g., a mirror, an espresso maker and tea cups. The challenging piece is about the arrival of a proselytizing Christian noblewoman to Rome, where she must face the Emperor’s command to worship the pagan gods or have her daughters, Faith, Hope and Charity put to torture. Its uniquely bizarre narrative about the clash of religions introduces us to the formidable Sapientia pitted against a paternalistic and buffoonish Hadrian.