Asheville Fringe Arts Festival: The Magic Weaver

Toybox, aka America’s Favorite Cartoon Witch, debuted his new show The Magic Weaver on March 24 at the Asheville Fringe Arts Festival. Based on a Russian folk tale of the same name, Toybox utilized single-wire marionettes to tell the enchanting story.

Seeing the intimate Magnetic Theatre space without its usual set dressing made it easy to become fully absorbed into the tale of a drummer-soldier who wishes to eat his gluten-free bread and non-dairy honey milk (yes, these flourishes did indeed make me laugh out loud) and whistle to the birds.

A young bear cub approaches him, warning him of a dangerous spirit in the forest who attacked his grandfather. Undeterred, he goes off in search of Grandfather Bear, Michael Bruin. He then finds a young boy, Vanya, who is searching for his mother, Maria, a kidnapping victim of the cruel wizard/spirit Thirteen. The soldier makes a deal with Thirteen, promising his drum in exchange for Maria.

The folktale goes the way one would expect, but the puppetry and jokes are what makes this version so incredibly fun. While there were some children in attendance, the adults were the ones cackling throughout the hour-long performance. The puppets were wonderfully crafted, looking handmade but still distinctive for each character. Toybox used different voices as well, making this one-puppeteer show all the more impressive. I highly recommend seeing it.

(Photo by Cory Marie Podielski)