The People's History of the United States

Description
Quest Theatre Ensemble's latest spectacle is an inventive and altogether moving survey of 400 years of American history, from the Pilgrims to Sept 11. Eschewing straightforward narrative, political agendas and grand, unifying theories, writer-director Andrew Park relies instead on the far more evocative methods of song, movement and puppetry. Told in rough chronological order, each brief scene features a poignant or humorous vignette from the nation's past, accompanied by a well-chosen piece of roots music. No mere grade-school pageant, the show's power lies in its use of imagery that's at once beautiful, haunting and continually surprising.—ZT