Battle of the sexes moves onstage at Highland Lake

NACL presents ‘The Confessions of Punch and Judy’

WHEN: Friday, July 27 and Saturday, July 28, 8:00 p.m.

WHERE: NACL Theatre, Highland Lake, NY.

COST: $15, $18 and $20.

CONTACT: 845/557-0694.

HIGHLAND LAKE, NY — One of our local treasures, the cutting-edge NACL Theatre company, will present one of its original confections this weekend. “The Confessions of Punch and Judy” is a wild all-night argument that is slapstick, stylish and full of surprises.

In this theatre event, a poetic and humorous exploration of intense love created and performed by Ker Wells and Tannis Kowalchuk, two virtuoso performers leap between realism and surrealism to expose the ups and downs of a long-term relationship. Voted best of 2005 by Theatremania NYC, and given an honorable mention at The Brighton Fringe Festival in England, the performance has played in Serbia, New York City, Cleveland, Toronto, Halifax, New Orleans, Winnipeg, Northern California, and New Hampshire. The piece is directed by Raymond Bobgan of Cleveland Public Theatre.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer described it as “A performative orgy of dance, song, storytelling, myth, poetry, puppets, even a brilliantly sadistic ventriloquist act. A hilarious pas de deux like nothing I’ve ever seen.” 3 Weeks, in England, wrote “A riot of bible stories, Greek Myths, unhealthy codependency and vaudeville cross-talk, our eponymous protagonists could just as easily have been called Adam and Eve or Kevin and Tracy for this beautifully executed meditation on the battle of the sexes. This is common enough subject matter, but rarely handled with such lightness of touch.”