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Run, don’t walk, on two legs or on four. Some of the finest theater I’ve seen in at least a goat’s age, experiencing Animal Farm at the Mum Pupputtheatre was… exhilarating.

Old City’s gem of a tiny theater, Mum Puppettheatre is at the east end of Arch Street, practically to the wall at I-95. Their black box of a theater has become the barnyard of Manor Farm, with the audience at either end. We are in the barn, in the play, of the play.

Throw out any idea of a tiny puppet proscenium and puppeteers behind curtains. The humans are the animals and the puppets, incorporating actual puppets as needed though much less than one might imagine, utilizing puppets to expand what is possible, rather than being confined and defined by them.

Most of us read George Orwell’s Animal Farm at some point, and the story is familiar. Playwright Andrew Periale, director and Mum founder Robert Smythe and an exceptional ensemble cast worked on this adaptation over a two year period, coming together periodically with no ready script or preconceived ideas. What developed from that collaboration is a seamless production that is often funny, the humorous peaks showing brightly above the very deep depths of Animal Farm’s despair and disappointment.

I was especially thankful that the dark story was presented in a way that was unafraid to be entertaining, but don’t think for an instant that they pulled any punches. It is a story that still asks us to ask questions. Of ourselves. Of those we’ve put into power. How do we support our friends, our families, our coworkers, our neighbors? Do we speak truth to power?

The six member cast, Bernard Bygott, Dave Johnson, Adrienne Mackey, Rob Neddoff, Jamie Lynne Simons and Bradley Wrenn carried both the principal roles that we all remember… Boxer and Mollie, the plow horses, Napoleon and Snowball, the pigs, Mollie, the vain mare, Moses, the raven, and an endless combination of other farms animals and the humans as well. Seamlessly, without formal costume changes, at times a real or suggested puppet helping with that character transition, and just as quickly becoming another animal or returning to a principal character in a split second.

With such a variety of distinctive characters to play and a great story to roar along in, the actors were clearly having a great time as performers, their craft both a toy to amuse and a lance to pierce.

There is also a new-kid-on-the-block funder for this production. The Philadelphia Theatre Initiative is a program of the Philadelphia Center for Arts & Heritage, funded by Pew and administered by UArts. The PTI showed enormous faith and daring, with their financial participation allowing this work to come together over time. That period of seasoning showed magnificently in every fully conceived and considered facet of Mum’s Animal Farm.

Animal Farm has an insanely short, three week run, and I’m convinced it will sell out. It runs now through May 10th.

Even if the theater isn’t typically in your budget, do yourself a favor and pick up a pair of tickets now. It was transforming.

Animal Farm @ Mum Puppettheatre
April 23rd – May 10th, 2008
Tickets $25 – $30

Mum Puppettheatre
15 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106
www.mumpuppet.org