
In my next life I want to come back as a giant penguin who can magically turn a theater full of children into giggle factories. Or maybe I could be a polar bear. Or an acrobatic paper bag. These are just some of the characters who charmed an audience of all ages at the December 15 matinee performance of Imago Theatre’s current iteration of its wondrous show ZooZoo.
Using costumes, dance, masks, music and mime, Imago’s co-artistic directors Carol Triffle and Jerry Mouawad created their first anthropomorphic revue in 1979 with Frogz. That production made it to Broadway and was lauded in 2002 by The New York Times, which said, “Theater like this opens the eyes to the possibilities of exploration in the vast realm of imagination.”
Rather than resting on their laurels, though, Triffle and Mouawad continually reshape their productions by introducing new characters. This year, ZooZoo, which premiered in 2009 and features sketches from Frogz and 2003’s Biglittlethings, also includes a preview performance by some sweetly humorous baby birds.

All of ZooZoo’s nonhuman characters come to kinetic life as they blink, flop or slink around the stage, delighting everyone, but especially the younger audience members. As a squatting frog silently pulsed, a boy near me bounced in his seat in time to Katie Griesar’s original music. Later, when the frogs stacked up, one on top of the other, another kiddo cried out, “Piggy back ride!”
This chorus of vocal contributions was part of the show’s appeal. Adults, too, added to the communal enthusiasm as they clapped in time while three striped cats performed a jazz dance with cocked hips and long tails slung over their “arms” like feather boas. And when a penguin nudged one woman out of her front-row seat, she good-naturedly stood up and danced with it.
One reason ZooZoo resonates with audiences, regardless of age, is that the characters are also deeply human. When one frog gets up and does a sassy dance, another one stares it down until the dancing frog stops, paralleling the pressure we all feel to conform our behavior to what’s socially acceptable. And when the penguins play their intensely competitive game of musical chairs, anyone from age four to 104 can recognize both the heady feeling of triumph and the lousy sensation of being left standing alone.

My favorite vignette might have been the preview of “Birds.” Suggesting infancy with the tiniest tilt of the head or tap of a long toe, the performers, with expert pacing, slowly build up to the wonderful moment when the fluffy-feathered creatures finally open their big beaks with a burst of song. In a show where movement is key, sound here, and in other places, adds oomph to the action. In the final scene, “Paper,” we hear large paper squares vigorously rattling like a flock of homemade kites in a windstorm, and in “Hippos,” a grumpy couple fight over a flowered blanket and crash into each other with a clamor that could have come from a bowling alley or a construction site.
Former Imago performer Danielle Vermette wrote in a 2019 ArtsWatch article that the actors listen closely to gauge an audience’s reactions. “I can’t adequately describe how tuned one’s ear becomes to different qualities of laughter,” Vermette said, “— how crucial that laughter is to guiding the performer to the sweet spot, when all the considerations of the mask, the movement, the stillness, the timing come together and coalesce into that can’t-help-myself giggle from an audience member.”
One experience that was especially funny to me was when a tapdancing anteater in a red plaid jacket perched on the edge of my chair and leaned back against my arm. Considering my aversion to being called on to participate in any show, the fact that I was shaking with laughter tells you just how enjoyable – or maybe even transforming – ZooZoo is.
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See “ZooZoo” through Jan. 1 at Imago Theatre, 17 S.E. Eighth Ave, Portland. Ticket and schedule information here.
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