Political Puppets

Once upon a time there was a princess from Havana who met a prince from Miami. The two fell in love, but their relationship seemed doomed. A top-hatted spider, a man-eating shark and illegal aliens kept interfering with their courtship.

The tale of these star-crossed lovers ends happily enough, but the story isn’t really the point of Once Upon an Island.

It’s the production.

The puppet play, now being staged at the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami, shows off the ingenious artistry of Pablo Cano. The 38-year-old Miami artist specializes in making marionettes out of ordinary junk: garbage cans, bottle caps, cans, waste baskets and other detritus picked off the streets. His skill is to transform these found objects into whimsical, often endearing, works of art.

“He’s an original,” says museum director Bonnie Clearwater, who first saw his marionettes in a Bal Harbor gallery. “It’s magical what he’s done.”

Inspired by Russian Constructivist and Dada art, Cano began fashioning his marionettes — complete with their own stage — while pursuing his master’s degree at New York’s Queens College. After returning to Miami, the Cuban-born artist continued to refine his puppetry, engaging friends and family to help him with his productions.

In 1997, MoCA invited him to stage his first theatrical production, Pursuit of Love, and has since commissioned him to create a different show each year.

This season’s play, Once Upon an Island, written by Miami architect Hervin Romney and his daughter, Cristina, is a metaphor for the relationship between Cuba and the United States.

“It’s a black comedy,” says Cano. “The story deals with a lot of problems that we are experiencing.” But the parable of Princess Havana and Prince Miami is so enchanting in its presentation that its political message is almost beside the point.

Fantasy reigns as the Cuban princess embarks on an undersea voyage to meet her handsome American suitor. Wearing a dress of bottle caps and a vase, she meets a seahorse, fashioned from a baroque plaster molding, cheese graters and candy dishes.

Despite the attempts of cigar-smoking Dr. Darkness — an obvious swipe at Fidel Castro — and a shark made from gasoline cans, the heroine arrives safely on the shores of Miami.

In the second act, Cano moves the action from his cigarette foil-covered stage to the floor. Full-scale versions of the princess, prince and Archangel Michael are wheeled out and operated by the artist dressed in black, much like Japanese Noh puppetry, according to Clearwater.

These kinetic sculptures are no less clever than the smaller marionettes: the prince is made from a car grille, truck lights, and a buoy fished out of Biscayne Bay; the archangel is constructed from can lids, gutters, ice buckets and a garbage can. “I look for lightweight materials,” says the artist.

Operating the puppets requires eight people, and the artist is being helped by a group of local high school students who volunteer in the museum’s junior docent program.

Cano will stage his tale of two cities for the public today, Saturday and Nov. 27, as well as perform for groups of school children and seniors. For those who can’t attend, his marionettes will be on display in MoCA’s pavilion gallery during regular museum hours.