Published 2010-10-25T19:57:00Z”/>

Tyler Ash

Chico Performances will unleash a zoo of untamed actors and a ferocious amount of talent Tuesday at Laxson Auditorium with Imago Theatre’s “ZooZoo.”

Imago Theatre combines the variety acts of vaudeville with the mastery of puppetry and the visual effects and comedy of Cirque du Soleil. In “ZooZoo,” its latest creation, animals are put in human situations to demonstrate approaches to everyday challenges that only a creature might achieve.

“It’s not like a play at all,” said co-creator Jerry Mouawad in a phone interview. “It’s more like going to the circus and the zoo at the same time.”

Imago Theatre was founded in 1979 by Mouawad and Carol Triffle in Portland, Ore., and has toured internationally for more than 20 years. It began when they started experimenting with different kinds of performances in mask theatre.

“ZooZoo” is a combination of their most recognized work, “FROGZ,” which appeared on Broadway in 2000 and 2002, as well as some of their other works.

The performance will include a variety of animals with human-related predicaments, including dining anteaters that can’t get their waiter’s attention in a restaurant, a frog with an inferiority complex that can’t jump as high as his amphibious friends, penguins playing musical chairs, human-like hippos struggling with insomnia, rambunctious rabbits and a mysterious rump-faced worm.

“Our animals are not a representation of the real animals in the world – they’re a representation of our images of these animals,” Mouawad said.

The costume for the worm is initially confusing – the arms are actually the actor’s legs, and the worm’s face is the performer’s bottom.

“We really just wanted to try and see what would happen if we placed a mask on an unusual part of the body,” Mouawad said as he talked of the talented “hand-standing” worm.

During the show, the performing animals tend to “wander” into the audience, looking for someone to help them out in their time of human-like hardship – and to provide more personal humor with their spectators.

“Probably half the show is in the first three rows,” Mouawad said.

Director of Chico Performances Dan DeWayne is excited for Imago Theatre’s return to Chico, this being their second time performing here in 10 years, he said.

“They’re pretty amazing,” he said. “To be able to interpret the movements of the animals is such that you have to buy into the idea that they’re alive. That’s an extraordinary accomplishment.”

Many people don’t think about the incredible talent these performers have to be able to make these creatures move, he said. For a child, the world of make-believe can be accessed on a whim, making “ZooZoo” an entirely credible observation.

“They’re totally believers,” DeWayne said. “It takes adults just a little bit longer. We all get there too, and pretty soon you just give yourself over to it and say, ‘Yeah, this is totally plausible.'”

Many people have never heard of such a performance as “ZooZoo.”

Construction management major Teddy Yorke was excited to hear that the spectacle actually exists, he said.

“That sounds legend – wait for it – dary!” Yorke said as he learned of the awe-inspiring exhibition.

Physics major Spencer Johnson is also enthusiastic about the show.

“I’m so psyched, high-five!” Johnson said as he slapped hands with Yorke.

Tyler Ash can be reached at [email protected]