The crew of this “Pirate Puppet Rock Odyssey” is led by Captain Clamp, a grizzled, red-faced puppet with a passion for grog and cabin boys. That combination leads to tragedy when the latest seabee, a sensitive lad, wins the Captain's heart while refusing his advances. Clamp forces the boy off the ship mid-ocean. But remorse, and the ship's chaplain, inspire Clamp's conversion and...
Okay, the plot's not all that important. Really, it's more of an excuse for Clamp's quips and mad antics. Attempting to dismiss his own vile behavior, Clamp points out that “Buddha was fat, Jesus was poor, Mohammed was evil; it's their teachings that live on!” And so he seduces a Polynesian girl; he bludgeons another pirate to death atop a skull-shaped temple; he even eats the chaplain (in Clamp's defense, the chaplain was a crab. And a stowaway). By the end of the evening, Captain Clamp kindles your love for “a crazy-ass bitch called the Sea!”
Clamp is the brilliant creation of Nick Jones, who's also this show's script writer, narrator, and rhythm guitarist. Dressed in a bright blue jacket and skinny black tie, he's got the wirey intensity of a New Wave rocker. Like that era of post-punk rock, “Jollyship” combines sweat and style in equal amounts. The music in “Jollyship” sounds as if it's held barely held together by puppet- and guitar-strings.
But viewers soon realize that they're an incredibly tight and focused group. Jones and the other three band-members and two puppeteers hustle themselves around Ars Nova's rowboat-sized stage without once sumbling over each other. Their tightly-practiced motions resemble the precision of a sailing crew, yet they never steal focus from the action.
And that action is dazzling. If you're used to the invisible puppeteering common to kids television, you'll be astonished by the Jollyship crew's balance between strict professionalism and DIY chaos. Of course, it helps that the band is loud and fast. There's joy in their music, that freaked-out bliss that comes from a bunch of artists doing their own thing and doing it well.
Sometimes they do hit a bum note (the second act's move inland left me missing the ship's crew, especially first mate Skeevy, AKA keyboardist/co-creator Raja Azar), but they plunge forward without a pause. The show ends with the crew reprising “Party Island” as they pile onto Jollyship. Its cannons are pointed straight at the audience.
Through June 28th, produced by and presented at Ars Nova, 511 W. 54th St. between Tenth and Eleventh Aves.
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