Puppets, People and Live Music Collide in Transmissions Theatre's RAILS Tonight

Featuring puppets, live music and a script that runs the gamut from dark comedy to pulp melodrama, Rails will be performed in Philadelphia at the Rotunda tonight, November 12th and Wednesday, November 13th (both shows at 7pm).

Inspired by the wise guys and foxy dames of film noir, David Lynch's Twin Peaks and the words of Pablo Neruda, Rails tells the story of honest, reliable and a-bit-slouched Wilbur Burland. After uncovering crooked dealings perpetrated by his straight-spined employer down at the rail yard, Wilbur's comfortable life begins to fall more and more into disarray. He loses his job, his son insists that trains can fly and his wife begins more and more to resemble a broom. The only person he can turn to now is a mysterious femme fatale, who has her own hidden agenda.

Found objects such as bowling pins, hand puppets and actors comprise the cast of Rails. First performed in the 2009 Philadelphia Fringe Festival, the show was hailed as a hit by the Philadelphia Inquirer and City Paper, who said it was a 'fiendishly satisfying noir comedy/thriller' with an 'inventive blending of puppetry and live action' and a 'script that has a witty way with genre tropes and comic banter, and smoky, spot-on scoring from local prog-jazz combo Upholstery'.

Rails features a live soundtrack provided by the music ensemble Upholstery. Upholstery is comprised of an array of Philadelphia musical heavyweights, boasting an impressive collective resume with roots in experimental jazz, progressive rock and Hassidic doom metal. The music composed for Rails is inspired by clanging steel, tritones and the works of Scriabin, which creates a smoky, sultry backdrop for the production.

This Philadelphia performance marks the beginning of a 14-day tour of this production, which will include stops in Brooklyn, Baltimore, Asheville, Atlanta and culminates with four shows in the New Orleans Fringe Festival.

Transmissions Theatre creates transcendently bizarre stories that span worlds from the microscopic to the cosmic in epic narratives that feature strong, interesting female characters. Their productions rest on foundations of cardboard and chicken-wire, wholeheartedly embracing a dark, humorous and quirky aesthetic that incorporates puppetry, animation and live music. They have created three original pieces for the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, including Rails in 2009, Water Bears in Space in 2011 and Iminami in 2012.

Rails will run Tuesday Nov. 12th and Wednesday Nov. 13th, all shows at 7 p.m., doors open at 6:30 p.m. at The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St. Tickets: Pay what you can at the door.

For more information:

...about Rails, visit http://www.railstheplay.weebly.com

...about Transmissions Theatre, visit http://www.transmissionstheatre.weebly.com

...about The Rotunda, visit http://www.therotunda.org

Pictured: Kate Black-Regan as Juliette. Photo by Candra Kennedy.