Icarus.

Bread and Puppet Theater's Icarus (1988) takes its inspiration from the painting Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by Pieter Bruegel. In this iteration, Icarus's tale is less a hubristic attempt at defying gravity and more a cautionary warning about what is enacted and sacrificed in the name of freedom. The setting is a small town near Colorado Springs, Colorado, home to the North American Air Defense Command. There, the population's sole focus is on self-protection and the preservation of the North American continent in an aerospace battle they are certain is fast approaching. While Icarus does achieve flight, he inevitably falls, in spite of the society's preparedness and their isolating, singular focus on self-preservation. His death sets off a domino effect of invasion and destruction, leaving comrades and enemies fleeing what's left of the burning continent, all in the same boat.

The Bread and Puppet Theater was founded in 1963 by Peter Schumann on New York City's Lower East Side. The theater's puppet shows range from tightly composed theater pieces presented by members of the company to extensive outdoor pageants which require the participation of many community volunteers. Performances occur in diverse venues, from international theater festivals to urban community centers to rural elementary schools. Bread and Puppet's impact on the greater world of experimental theater is acknowledged by scholars, and evidenced by the hundreds of unique theater companies now in existence that cite Bread and Puppet as an influence. One of the most enduring legacies of Bread and Puppet is its autonomy, receiving no direct government funding, but instead relying on its own practice of frugality and a huge amount of volunteerism, along with the merged incomes of performance fees, and sales of Bread and Puppet Press' posters and publications, as well as donations to pay its own way. Bread & Puppet has won numerous awards, including the Obie Award, the Erasmus Award from Amsterdam, the Vermont Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts, the Puppeteers of America Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship and numerous ribbons in local Vermont parades in Hardwick and Barton. breadandpuppet.org