The Vernon and District Performing Arts Centre Society proudly presents Ignorance on Friday, January 24^th 2013 at 8:00pm at the Vernon and District Performing Arts Centre. Ignorance is the third of five shows in the Society’s 2013/14 Theatre series.

While our lives today are amazingly easier than those of our ancestors, many of us can’t shake a nagging sense of dissatisfaction. So, on our common behalf, the Old Trout Puppet Workshop (The Erotic Anguish of Don Juan and Famous Puppet Death Scenes) has gone searching for our lost bliss.

Our prehistoric ancestors once howled with joy, stamping the rocks with grubby feet over the steaming remains of a mastodon while we, their clever descendants, settle for feeble tweets, stuttering skype and hot yoga all the while stifling the mightier shrieks that surge below.  Ignorance is a puppet documentary about the evolution of happiness – from the thick-blooded hearts of the ancient caves, to the ethereal heaven of our light-speed future – it’s about where we all went wrong, and how we might solve this problem without alcohol, tranquilizers or other induced ignorance?

Founded on a ranch in southern Alberta in 1999, the Old Trout Puppet Workshop is a puppet theatre company dedicated to exploring the outer edges of the puppet medium. Their work is renowned for being artistically stunning and captivating. The workshop continues to strive for unique original art and does so with great success.

Ignorance takes place in a cave fashioned by two giant interlocking antlers.  The performance is lit by a fire that casts flickering shadows over some strange primitive ritual performed by slope-browed Cro-Magnons. They are telling a story using rocks and branches and bones — our original story of our fall from grace.

Contrasting this primal tale of woe are scenes from our modern world of Facebook and traffic jams, carefully illustrating our own trajectory away from paradise. “It seemed important to show the struggle of our cave ancestors with the struggles of modern existence” explains Pityu Kenderes, one of the artistic directors and co-founders of The Old Trout Puppet Workshop. “While we are both trying to survive in different worlds, we are all fighting for the same thing: an elusive sense of happiness.”

Tickets for Ignorance are $40 for adults, $37 for Seniors and $35 for Students. Call the Ticket Seller at 250-549-SHOW (7469) or log on line towww.ticketseller.ca for tickets and more information. Warning: Contains adult content including puppet suicide and puppet nudity. Contains strobe lighting effects, theatrical fog and haze.

The Vernon and District Performing Arts Centre would like to thank the following sponsors for their generous support: Prestige Inn, Boston Pizza, the Vernon Morning Star, the Okanagan Advertiser, the British Columbia Arts Council, the Department of Canadian Heritage, the North Okanagan Regional District, and the Powerhouse Theatre.