At the Magnetic North Theatre Festival one of the best shows
that I saw was Ignorance created by
the Old Trout Puppet Workshop. The three-man group is from Calgary and are one
of the world’s leading (there’s very few I suppose) puppet artist groups out
there! Ignorance is a puppet
documentary about the evolution of happiness and of mankind. How was it that in
our prehistoric origins we as a species found more joy in life than we do
today? What is happiness? And what has happened to it? The Trouts ask these big
questions and more.
Ignorance is also an exploration of the evolution of puppetry. Puppets go way, way back and the Trouts have built their puppets as though they were made by cave people out of raw, primitive materials such as stone, sticks, bones, fur, feathers, antlers and the like. If that wasn’t an innovation on puppetry, the Trouts don’t make or use the typical on-a-set-of-strings puppets that are manipulated with your hands. No, no, no. They’ll have a pair of slippers that are rats and run around the stage or my personal favourite from this show: A Trout wears puppets on his arms, each of which becomes a deadly prehistoric bird of some sort. And the innovation doesn’t stop there people!! They’ve facilitated a whole new way to create theatre. Ignorance is an open project—they do not consider it a finished piece. The entirety of the script is online for you to view if you join their blog (linked below) and you can comment or make suggestions for what you’d like to see removed, added or changed from the script.
Ignorance is also an exploration of the evolution of puppetry. Puppets go way, way back and the Trouts have built their puppets as though they were made by cave people out of raw, primitive materials such as stone, sticks, bones, fur, feathers, antlers and the like. If that wasn’t an innovation on puppetry, the Trouts don’t make or use the typical on-a-set-of-strings puppets that are manipulated with your hands. No, no, no. They’ll have a pair of slippers that are rats and run around the stage or my personal favourite from this show: A Trout wears puppets on his arms, each of which becomes a deadly prehistoric bird of some sort. And the innovation doesn’t stop there people!! They’ve facilitated a whole new way to create theatre. Ignorance is an open project—they do not consider it a finished piece. The entirety of the script is online for you to view if you join their blog (linked below) and you can comment or make suggestions for what you’d like to see removed, added or changed from the script.
(Check out this video as the Trouts explain how they put their puppets together.)
The play juxtaposes scenes from the first humans (named Adam and
Eve) with samples of the miserable populous of the present day. But perhaps the best character in the play is
the ominous floating happy face balloon that acts as a metaphor for our
struggle to achieve happiness. A man steps on his window ledge about to jump.
The balloon floats by, the man grabs it, but too heavy for the balloon—he still
falls to his death.
So why are the cave people so happy?
They must fight to survive the wild, scrounge for food, fight off
monsters and the Alpha Male Grogg. The answer?
“He has a very small brain, and so he cannot conceive of anything
better. He is happy simply to be alive.”
How wonderful it is simply to be alive! This planet is a magical
coincidence. The fact that you are alive and thinking, breathing and feeling,
reading this right now dear reader is simply remarkable. “This actually is
the best moment of your life. Every moment is the best moment of your
life.” Thank you for sharing in the best moment of
our lives together.
Ignorance is an ironic title. It is the cave-wonders Adam and Eve who are ignorant about much of the world—they’re just figuring it out as they go along. And our generation surely is not ignorant in that sense, but we’ve lost what makes us happy. What gives us fulfillment and sustenance?
“So many thousands of years later, even though we have everything we could possibly want, we are not nearly so happy. Most people experience only occasional whiffs of contentment, and a surprising number of us are altogether miserable; in fact, by the time this show is over, fourteen people will have jumped off of bridges in North America alone, and twice that number in Finland, where they don’t even have that many bridges.”
Well? Because we have too much. And we keep wanting more. Our brains release a neurochemical when we imagine something that want and we feel like we’ll only be happy if we get it. The Trouts claim that Mother Nature hasn’t designed us for happiness. We’re designed to be eternally, insatiably, dissatisfied. It’s an ambitious age we live in. And if you live in a first world country, it’s probably very, very easy for you to get nearly anything you want. Unfortunately, we’ve been conditioned by advertising to look for superficial quick-fixes for happiness highs. If you’re having a bad day, how often is the solution shopping? Possessions fill in the gap of our insecurities and self-worth, but their affect is fleeting. A purse or whatever you buy you believe expresses our personality doesn’t DO anything. It’s a thing you carry around. But it’s not you. And it’s not apart of you. You are not what you own. According to The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard, money buys happiness to the extent where it enables you to meet your basic needs. After those are being met, the more money and stuff you have, a person’s happiness actually deteriorates.
It’s not just that these puppets are miserable; they’ve forgotten how to feel anything. Happiness does not mean banning sadness from our emotional repertoire. As I’m sure you know, difficult experiences help you grow and shape your life. Melancholy has given rise to great works of art! Scientists speculate that people currently dull all of their emotions and they stop being present in the moment. We’re in our heads, we’re on autopilot and we need to get out. Because if you dull the “negative” emotions, you cannot do so without dulling all emotion and so when you experience “happiness”, it won’t be to its full.
Ignorance is an ironic title. It is the cave-wonders Adam and Eve who are ignorant about much of the world—they’re just figuring it out as they go along. And our generation surely is not ignorant in that sense, but we’ve lost what makes us happy. What gives us fulfillment and sustenance?
“So many thousands of years later, even though we have everything we could possibly want, we are not nearly so happy. Most people experience only occasional whiffs of contentment, and a surprising number of us are altogether miserable; in fact, by the time this show is over, fourteen people will have jumped off of bridges in North America alone, and twice that number in Finland, where they don’t even have that many bridges.”
Well? Because we have too much. And we keep wanting more. Our brains release a neurochemical when we imagine something that want and we feel like we’ll only be happy if we get it. The Trouts claim that Mother Nature hasn’t designed us for happiness. We’re designed to be eternally, insatiably, dissatisfied. It’s an ambitious age we live in. And if you live in a first world country, it’s probably very, very easy for you to get nearly anything you want. Unfortunately, we’ve been conditioned by advertising to look for superficial quick-fixes for happiness highs. If you’re having a bad day, how often is the solution shopping? Possessions fill in the gap of our insecurities and self-worth, but their affect is fleeting. A purse or whatever you buy you believe expresses our personality doesn’t DO anything. It’s a thing you carry around. But it’s not you. And it’s not apart of you. You are not what you own. According to The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard, money buys happiness to the extent where it enables you to meet your basic needs. After those are being met, the more money and stuff you have, a person’s happiness actually deteriorates.
It’s not just that these puppets are miserable; they’ve forgotten how to feel anything. Happiness does not mean banning sadness from our emotional repertoire. As I’m sure you know, difficult experiences help you grow and shape your life. Melancholy has given rise to great works of art! Scientists speculate that people currently dull all of their emotions and they stop being present in the moment. We’re in our heads, we’re on autopilot and we need to get out. Because if you dull the “negative” emotions, you cannot do so without dulling all emotion and so when you experience “happiness”, it won’t be to its full.
Aristotle
said that happiness is the only thing humans desire for its own sake.
Everything else, whether it’s fame or money or whatever is all desires not for
their own sake but because people believe that is what will make them happy.
Similar to Buddhism, Arisotle believed that the happiness was the practice of
virtue. Happiness has always been a popular subject. But it’s also an
incredibly fuzzy subject. It’s of those big words that are hard to define—one
that everyone will agree on anyways. Is it joy, amusement, satisfaction,
gratification, euphoria or triumph? Actually, it’s all of those things.
Some people are literally born happier—their personalities focus on brighter outlooks, they are better able to see beauty and opportunity than average. But these things can be learnt. They just take practice. Look for beauty in things.
What studies say makes us happy, the ingredients to happiness if you will:
-Pleasure physical (food, being clean etc.)
-Engagement in activities
-Relationships and having a sense of community
-Having a sense of purpose or meaning in your life, self-esteem
-Practicing selflessness and gratitude and presence
I’m going to tell you about a site called The Happy Planet Index.
“The HPI measures what matters: the extent to which countries deliver long, happy, sustainable lives for the people that live in them. The Index uses global data on life expectancy, experienced well-being and Ecological Footprint to calculate this.”
The top 5 countries? Costa Rica, Vietnam, Columbia, Belize and El Salvadore. Curious where Canada fits on this? We’re 64th out of 151. Our experienced well-being is #2 after Denmark, and our life expectancy is placed #13 out of 151. Our downfall is our ecological footprint (140th out of 151. Which correlates with our consumption habits). If you’re even more curious, you can take a test on the website to determine what your Happiness Index is.
Back to Ignorance: after two years of developing
the show, the Trouts sincerely believe they have unraveled the happiness
riddle. The show ends on this narration note: Some people are literally born happier—their personalities focus on brighter outlooks, they are better able to see beauty and opportunity than average. But these things can be learnt. They just take practice. Look for beauty in things.
What studies say makes us happy, the ingredients to happiness if you will:
-Pleasure physical (food, being clean etc.)
-Engagement in activities
-Relationships and having a sense of community
-Having a sense of purpose or meaning in your life, self-esteem
-Practicing selflessness and gratitude and presence
I’m going to tell you about a site called The Happy Planet Index.
“The HPI measures what matters: the extent to which countries deliver long, happy, sustainable lives for the people that live in them. The Index uses global data on life expectancy, experienced well-being and Ecological Footprint to calculate this.”
The top 5 countries? Costa Rica, Vietnam, Columbia, Belize and El Salvadore. Curious where Canada fits on this? We’re 64th out of 151. Our experienced well-being is #2 after Denmark, and our life expectancy is placed #13 out of 151. Our downfall is our ecological footprint (140th out of 151. Which correlates with our consumption habits). If you’re even more curious, you can take a test on the website to determine what your Happiness Index is.
"But what if happiness isn’t actually the point? Could it be that we’re meant for more than mere contentment? What if the pursuit of happiness upon which our entire society is based is both hopeless and… shallow?"
Maybe the solution is to just stop looking.
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