FESTIVAL ‘ 90 : STAGE REVIEW : L.A. FESTIVAL : A Populist Parade From the Puppeteers

With its band playing and leader Peter Schumann high on 20-foot stilts disguised as a tender angel of joy, the ubiquitous Bread and Puppet Theater marched its way through Chinatown in a Sunday parade that was part of the Moon Festival.

There was, alas, no adequate way to know this, unless you had psychic powers or simply stumbled on the event. Festival promotion indicated something by the Bread and Puppet at Olvera Street, but nothing that began blocks away at the Alpine Recreation Center.

Fortunately, the afternoon parade ended at the Olvera Street Plaza, where indeed the Bread and Puppet performed a 45-minute version of its annual Domestic Resurrection Circus, to the great glee of a packed audience. (This will be repeated at Reseda’s San Julian Park at noon today.)

The full-length Domestic Resurrection Circus, a two-day, noon-to-dusk event that draws as many as 20,000 people each August to a grassy 30-acre field adjacent to the Bread and Puppet farm in Glover, Vt., is a joyous one-ring celebration that pokes fun at whatever social, political, ecological or mythological issues strike the group’s unfettered fancy.

The condensed version of the Circus at Olvera Street delivered a tiger-taming act led by a 2-year-old (children are always an important part of all B&P; shows), a mini-parade of the work force and, in the turned-tables department, a group of dancing pigs serving a human head on a platter!

In the realm of adult fairy tales, a roving frog-knight is corraled by concerned dwarfs (definitely not the Disney variety) to kiss their Sleeping Beauty. As thanks for his pains, the waking Beauty knocks out the poor frog, who remains out of it until a kiss from a passing Prince, in turn, wakens him. (He was expecting a princess maybe?)

Such pure spoofing goes hand-in-glove with a skit that pits a villain, Cold War, against the knight Common Sense and makes mincemeat of Bush’s 1989 invasion of Panama, the Stealth bomber and the peace dividend. (It hasn’t yet caught up with the invasion of Kuwait.)

The public’s favorite on Sunday was a sendup of Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) and the Rev. Donald Wildmon, there, they told us, to sniff out obscenity. Helms got arrested by his own art police when one of the tigers came up from the rear and ripped off his trousers.

These skits are brisk, short, simple, benevolent and bracketed by bravura stunts or colorful Earth-preservational interludes. They are a true celebration of intelligent life and the dignity of all creatures, human and otherwise. These artists show impatience with silliness and evil, but never stoop to hostility, having no doubt discovered long ago that laughter is far more memorable than anger.

This unique company from Vermont promises to be the connecting thread that will weave its magic all the way through the two-week L.A. Festival. Its first full-fledged, extended appearance in Los Angeles epitomizes festival director Peter Sellars’ idea of art for the people and, where Bread and Puppet is concerned, as often as possible free to the people.

Of the B&P;’s many events, only “Metropolitan Indian Report” (which ended Monday) and “The Uprising of the Beast” (still to come) were/are ticketed.

The others--the pageants, parades and free shows in the parks that are among Schumann’s favorite things to do because he too passionately believes in the idea of art for everyone--are open to anybody who cares to show up.

Finding out where and when hasn’t always been easy, but help is on the way. Please note:

Today, noon, the Domestic Resurrection Circus, San Julian Park, Reseda--free; Saturday and Sunday, noon, “The Same Boat,” near the carousel at Griffith Park--free ; Sept. 14-15, 8 p.m., “The Uprising of the Beast,” Santa Monica Airport. $10 ($5 for children younger than 12), sold out; (213) 623-7400 or 480-3232, for cancellations.