Theatre in Review: Made in China (Wakka Wakka/59E59)Do you remember when you were a kid and believed you could dig a hole to China in your backyard? Mary and Eddie, the puppet protagonists of Made in China, find a rather different route to that Asian powerhouse -- via the toilet in Mary's bathroom. They get sucked right into the porcelain bowl, ultimately finding themselves deposited on adjoining mountains somewhere in the People's Republic. They would appear to be doomed, but Mary quickly realizes that she can fly and, with Eddie firmly affixed to her back, they take off, eventually crash-landing at the Beijing airport. Am I making sense yet? Made in China, a musical puppet extravaganza, also includes a giant panda who raps out the word "China" to a kind of Asian hip-hop; a Supermarket Sweep-style shopping spree, accompanied by an ode to the joys of consumer goods; a musical number delivered by a bathroom plunger, backed by a telephone, handgun, and other household objects; an instance of spirit possession by a moth(?); a dragon with a taste for human flesh; and a duet featuring Mao Zedong and Uncle Sam that more or less endorses slave labor. At times, Made in China, which weds such bizarre plot elements to left-wing economic theory, plays like children's theatre for young audiences fully briefed on Das Kapital. Don't even think of bringing the kids, however. After a brief, captivating opening, in which we meet that panda (who, alas, never returns), we are introduced to Mary, a bitter, lonely divorcée, who sits on her couch in the nude -- as I guess they do in Puppetland -- watching television and grumbling. We see an anatomically correct Mary puppet, complete with sagging breasts and cellulite-studded hips, snacking on pasta in the altogether, and snapping at her overeager dog, complaining -- in a line that I never, ever thought I'd hear -- that the animal has made her drop a dollop of macaroni in her "bush." No wonder Mary's first number is titled "This is Me," and a good portion of it is delivered while sitting on the toilet. Mary lives next door to Eddie, an émigré from China, but they have little use for each other, especially when, one day in the park, Eddie's dog mounts Mary's in an enthusiastic act of coitus. Mary, depressed by this, as well as the onset of the holiday season, hits the stores, buying lots of stuff she doesn't need. Hidden inside one of her purchases is a letter, an apparent cri de coeur written half in English and half in Chinese. Mary asks Eddie to translate it, mysteriously causing him to fly into a rage. The letter, which has a life of its own, persists, however, floating tantalizingly in the air and causing the chase that sends Mary and Eddie into the toilet bowl. The letter is from an inmate of a Chinese government labor camp, where prisoners live in appalling conditions while assembling products bound for the US for no wages. (Such a place is even worse than, say, Foxconn, the 21st-century sweatshop that the news media has reported so much about.) Before Made in China is over, Mary and Eddie will end up working in a labor camp, but once the authors, Gwendolyn Warnock and Kirjan Waage (with help from the Made in China ensemble) have made their initial point about Chinese labor practices and how Americans benefit from them, they have little more to say. (There is a reference to Tiananmen Square, which figures in Eddie's past, but it lasts less than a minute.) Many of the ideas seem cribbed from anti-capitalist agitprop of the 1930s. For example, there's the rapaciously wealthy Richard Millions (he prefers "Dick Mills") and his consort, Madame Millions, who show up to praise the ever-rising Chinese standard of living. Then there's that number for Uncle Sam and Mao, who sing, "Deck the halls with profit margins/Work work work work work work work work work/Flood the market with our imports/Work work work work work work work work work." (Yan Li's songs wed basic lyrics to cheerful, soft-pop melodies.) Even if Made in China isn't suitable for children, its satirical points are kid stuff. In truth, Made in China is headed in so many directions at once, it's hard to know what to make of it all. Its socioeconomic points are glancing at best, and tend to be obscured by the adventures of Mary and Eddie. The script scrambles after laughs in various unseemly ways. When Mary gets sick, it results in an extended sequence of retching noises that is clearly meant to be hilarious and isn't. When Mary and Eddie are thrown into a hellhole Chinese prison, it cues a cutesy I-hate-you duet, "Except You," that practically telegraphs the fact that these two sparring partners will soon be in love. And if you don't think there's going to be a graphic encounter between Mary and Eddie, think again. It features a musical number that climaxes as the same time as Eddie, if you know what I mean. Avenue Q has long prided itself on its scenes of puppet sex, but what it has to offer is purely soft-core compared to the activities in Made in China. The folks at Wakka Wakka know all about crafting beautiful stage pictures using puppets, and Made in China is loaded with such moments. The appearance of the panda has a spectral power, as does a scene in which Mary and Eddie leap from one bamboo plant to another high in the air; the dragon is another eerily beautiful creation. Aided by Alex Goldberg's fluid, graceful lighting design, one scene melts into the next in cinematic fashion. The video, by Tiger Cai, with additional contributions by Eve Warnock and Oblsk Interactive and Andy Manjuck, includes tracking shots of shopping aisles; song lyrics, complete with bouncing balls; and a collage of pollution-spewing power plants. The sound design, by Tyler Kieffer, with additional contributions by Manjuck, includes music on a radio, prison doors, dripping water, and machine guns. Warnock and Waage, who also directed, have confidently marshalled the work of many fine contributors. So much creativity, so much bad taste: Despite the mastery of the theatre crafts on display, Made in China is a silly, superficial entertainment that pretends to a significance it can't really attain while aiming shockingly low for laughs. The show's heart is in the right place but everything else about it is found in the nether regions. -- David Barbour 
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