What happens when you combine puppetry, Celtic-Renaissance-rock-pop music, Renaissance vibes, and opera?
Tigre Tigre is what happens.
Tigre Tigre is a new production from the Fox and Beggar Theater company, whose mission is “to bring provocative, innovative, and enchanting storytelling to a troubled world, through a broad fusion of both performing and visual arts.” Its productions combine street theater, dance, puppetry, circus arts, and what it calls “folk opera.”
The operetta toured across Minnesota and Wisconsin from September to October of 2025, performing in parks outside of a converted van.
The work tells the story of two scientists from a two-dimensional paper world who create a being of the three-dimensional world: a human named Z. The scientists are full of awe as Z dances and sings across the stage, more lifelike than the scientists' paper selves. Z’s singing and the scientists’ awe lead them, and us, to question what it means to have a body, to exist. If Z can sing and dance, then she can surely feel. She can surely die.
Tigre Tigre’s two-dimensional puppet world is set more in the style of the Renaissance, with whistle, mandolin, accordion and cello as the main instruments, with interspersed appearances from synthesizer and saxophone as the world of the opera transforms. Meanwhile, the puppets themselves only speak in distorted voices, and subtitles project the silhouettes of their warped, early modern English dialogue on either side of the stage.
Because the operetta transitions from the two-dimensional paper world it creates to a three-dimensional world set in the 19th century, co-composer Lucy London modeled the work after the Gilbert & Sullivan operetta style. This style, which laid the groundwork for modern musical theater, intersperses light-hearted songs with spoken dialogue.
Just as its set design spans the ages, Tigre Tigre asks questions from the Renaissance that many are still trying to answer today. The Renaissance ushered in a new age of science, with new ways of thinking about life, death, and selfhood. The study of human anatomy as we know it got its start during this period, setting off a seismic change in scientific understanding of the human body. Once seen as an inscrutable mystery, knowledge of anatomy evolved to be seen as an admirable landscape, and, eventually, a fine-tuned machine.
The scientists in Tigre Tigre bridge this evolution of thought when they invent Z. They are like gods as they create the human form, a body in their own image. When they show Z to their peers at an exhibition, they downplay her existence to that of a machine. An object. But Z can feel, and when she comes to terms with her cosmic humanity, her paper world is set on tilt, and she must discover herself in the truest sense.
Z’s journey extends past a stage built into the large vehicle Fox and Beggar have dubbed the “Gonzago.” A bandstand is constructed on the roof of the Gonzago, and a stage and walkway extend into the audience at ground level. And because the shows are performed in parks with audiences sitting on blankets and in lawn chairs, the surrounding landscape becomes part of the stage as well.
Co-composer London, who also performs in the band, says her favorite part of the show is “watching Z break out of the two-dimensional world and into the audience, where she smells the grass, meets some other 3D audience members, and finds the Orrery, a 3D model of the solar system.” It’s the only moment of the show when the band can clearly see the scene taking place, with the actors, audience, and band all simultaneously occupying the same space.
Another world in the show belongs to the four-dimensional character, the Augur, which brings a modern, distorted five-string resonator bass into the picture, with a loop pedal drone that has an electronic feel and mind of its own. The Augur first appears in the audience before it climbs on stage. It’s a scene that’s a bit frightening, but it instantly changes the stakes of the show and the world of the audience.
The proliferation of artificial intelligence and its unknown consequences provided critical context for the world of this opera and the story it aims to tell. “The message of the show is about humanity's constant drive to create,” London says, “and how to move slowly and with intention when creating technology with potentially catastrophic consequences.”
It’s a message that seems to resonate with audiences. “One of the best reflections we heard,” London says, “was that after seeing Tigre Tigre, an audience member said that they saw the world in a different way.”
Beyond this message, London says she and her fellow performers “hope audiences take away the magic of spectacle, the wonder that exists in this world, [and] the beauty of a cast coming together to put everything they've got into a show.”
This activity is made possible in part by the Minnesota Legacy Amendment‘s Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund.
Love the music?
Show your support by making a gift to YourClassical.
Each day, we’re here for you with thoughtful streams that set the tone for your day – not to mention the stories and programs that inspire you to new discovery and help you explore the music you love.
YourClassical is available for free, because we are listener-supported public media. Take a moment to make your gift today.