“Baby Universe, A Puppet Odyssey” boldly goes where no puppets have gone before

NEW YORK — Imagine it is billions of years from now. Our solar system is dying, and the sun has become a red giant, but a few people are is still alive and desperately trying to create another universe to where they might escape.
This is the premise of “Baby Universe, A Puppet Odyssey,” but don’t let the puppets throw you — this is no children’s show, although children would definitely get it.
It’s a world where the sun has literally turned into a large red giant, played by Andrew Manjuck, and the planet Mercury, (the voice of Kirjan Waage) is burning to a crisp, with the moon doing the jealous sun’s bidding, trying to stop man from creating another universe.
It is also a morality tale and a love story between a creator, here the loving Mother, (the voice of Gwendolyn Warnock), caring for a newly born adorable Baby Universe 7001, complete with mutant constellations, with the voice of Peter Russo.
The actors seamlessly interchange performing the various puppets throughout the show, but the voices of the characters are always the same actors.
There is only one man, one woman, and one child left on the dark and scary planet earth, in addition to the scientists. It doesn’t rain anymore and there are no trees or birds or beautiful things, and everyone wears gas masks and is terrified.
The perennially cheerful Apocalypse Radio host, with the voice of Andrew Manjuck, interviews all three, and they say, “These are the last days. Nothing can keep death from us.”
The scientists are desperately trying to create another world where the survivors can travel to and start again, and so they frantically create baby universes hoping one of them might contain a blue planet in a small solar system where they might find a home.
The puppeteers who anthropomorphize the planets are dressed in dark costumes and wear gas masks next to their various puppets, which renders them almost invisible and add to the dark and desperate atmosphere.
At times there is almost a mystical Javanese shadow puppet feeling when the miniature puppets are projected onto a screen in shadow form, such as when the sun’s henchman, the moon, chases after the new Baby Universe 7001 and delivers it to the sun to destroy as he has other baby universes before him.
Some have criticized the simplicity of the sets, designed by the Wakka Wakka ensemble from Norway and Joy Wang, but I think that they work perfectly well and enable the audience to participate in the fantasy and magic of the show.
Before the one-act play begins in the lobby an amazing robotic puppet named Hawkings 5000, who looks like a tiny version of the physicist Stephen Hawkings, tools about in a miniature wheelchair conversing with the people in the lobby. It’s slightly creepy, but pretty amazing, all guided by computer by creator Brian Patton.
This Off-Broadway production, located in the pristine Baruch Performing Arts Center in New York City, is off the beaten path but definitely well worth the effort.

BABY UNIVERSE

4 Stars
Location: Baruch Performing Arts Center, 55 Lexington Ave. E. 25th St., at Lexington and 3rd Ave.
Production: Written and directed by Kirjan Waage and Gwendolyn Warnock. Costume design and masks by Warnock. Executive and creative producer in U.S. Gabrielle Brechner. Executive and creative producer in Norway, Waage. Composer Lars Petter Hagen. Video artist Naho Taruishi. Lighting design by Kate Leahy. Sound design by Brett Jarvis. Set design by Wakka Wakka and Joy Wang.
Running time: 75 minutes with no intermission.
Show Times: Tuesday through Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 7 p.m. through Jan. 9. There is no show on Friday, Dec. 31, but there is a show at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 1. There are additional shows on Friday, Jan. 7 and Saturday, Jan. 8 at 2 and 10 p.m., and on Saturday, Jan. 8 and Sunday, Jan. 9 at 11 a.m.
Tickets: $30 for adults and $20 for students and seniors. For tickets call 866-811-4111 or go to the website at www.theatermania.com.
ACTOR ... CHARACTER VOICES
Peter Russo ... Baby Universe
Gwendolyn Warnock ... Mother
Andrew Manjuck ... The Sun, Apocalypse Radio host, Scientist 2, the Monitor
Kirjan Waage ... The Moon, Mercury, Scientist 1
Melissa Creighton ... Ensemble