RODS SCHOLARS : With No Strings Attached, Puppeteers Give ‘Hobbit’ Life

The flashiest cast member in Thea^tre Sans Fil’s puppet production of “The Hobbit” is a dragon that’s 13 feet tall, stretches 26 feet from his snout to the tip of his tail and has a costume of fiberglass, aluminum, wood and colorfully painted fabric.

But an effective dragon needs more than good looks. He’s gotta have heart. And that, says Thea^tre Sans Fil founder Andre Viens, is where the humans come in.

The five puppeteers who perform in “The Hobbit” provide “the soul and the spirit” of Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf and more than 40 other “Hobbit” characters they portray. Viens won’t be on stage, but he will be in the audience Friday at the Irvine Barclay Theatre when the Montreal-based troupe presents its version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy classic.

The puppeteers are dressed in black from head to foot and stand behind the puppets, where they control their movements with a complex series of rods. Puppets in this show range in size from the 4-foot-tall hero, Bilbo, to the aforementioned dragon.

Each represents months of work by a team of artists, and each puppeteer portrays several characters in each show, sometimes handling more than one puppet at a time. Some of the larger pieces, including the dragon and the magician Gandalf, require as many as three puppeteers waggling, stretching and almost dancing together.

The show follows the adventures of mild-mannered hobbit Bilbo as he leaves his comfy hobbit hole and takes on the unlikely role of adventurer-hero.

Along the way, he battles dragons, monsters, trolls and an assortment of other unsavory characters. Aided by the forest elves and empowered by a magic ring, he ultimately restores peace to MiddleEarth, meanwhile learning a valuable lesson in self-reliance. (Viens cautions that some of the effects and monsters may be too intense for younger children.)

“Bilbo is a little of a timid fellow,” Viens explained by phone from the company’s headquarters. “But Gandalf the wizard knew that inside him, there’s a lot of strength that would enable him to take on this adventure.

“As Tolkien says, Bilbo represents all of us . . . who think we don’t have a lot of strength but when we are confronted, we have inside us the power we need.”

Recorded dialogue, original music and a smattering of black-light effects help move the story along, but it is really the dexterity and mastery of the puppeteers that bring Tolkien’s unique characters to life, Viens said.

“He must give emotion to the puppet by using his hands, his own body, so the puppet can express itself. He has to be the complete artist . . . to move like a dancer, to be a mime and an actor.”

Thea^tre Sans Fil’s version of Tolkien’s 1936 book is the most-requested show in the troupe’s repertoire, said Viens, who directed the original staging in 1979 and continues to refine the show through its many international tours. They’ve given more than 1,300 “Hobbit” performances.

Orange County last saw the troupe’s “Hobbit” in 1994. The next year, the company’s version of “The Lord of the Rings,” Tolkien’s trilogy written as a sequel to “The Hobbit,” was featured at the Orange County Performing Arts Center as part of that year’s Imagination Celebration.

Viens started Thea^tre Sans Fil (“theater without strings”) while he was still a drama student in 1971 at the University of Quebec in Montreal. Eager to explore puppetry as a theatrical form, he and some of his classmates studied the ancient Japanese art of bunraku, in which large realistic-looking rod puppets, generally 4 feet high and elaborately costumed, are manipulated by onstage puppeteers dressed in black.

Their first performance, held the same year at the university in front of an adult audience, was an adaptation of a Japanese Noh theater piece, “The Spider.” Versions of stories by modern German and French authors, ancient Indian legends and Tolkien’s classics are among Thea^tre Sans Fil’s diverse repertoire.

“I love legends, I love myths . . . I love intelligent fairy tales,” said Viens, whose latest piece for the company is one about a child getting his comeuppance from the same household objects he abused in a temper tantrum.

“With the giant puppets, we can pursue those kind of fantasy characters in a way that is [more believable] than if actors are trying to make them in a costume. When they leave the theater, I want people to have in mind, ‘It’s magical.’ ”

* What: Thea^tre Sans Fil presents “The Hobbit.”

* When: 7:30 p.m. Friday.

* Where: Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine.

* Whereabouts: From the San Diego (405) Freeway, exit at Jamboree Road and drive south. Turn left on Campus Drive. The theater is near Campus and Bridge Road.

* Wherewithal: $12-$17. Parking is $4.

* Where to call: (714) 854-4646.