BENNINGTON — The iconoclastic Bread & Puppet Theater returns to Bennington College. Peter Schumann’s legendary carnival of dissent and other possibilities will be stopping by VAPA’s Greenwall Auditorium on their spring 2026 tour, “End of the World Never Minding.”
The tour this spring, director Schumann writes, centers another theme: “Humanity’s humdrum is now outrageous and no longer composed of beloved details. The rats in charge of spreading the plague are ordered to repurpose human freedom and democracy into guns, bombs, and starvation. Our own futuristic Not-Yet is impatient and unready. We must take our cardboard provocations into the revolting streets of life, with help from our paper-maché divinities, to succeed and succeed.”
After the show, Bread & Puppet will serve its famous sourdough rye bread with aioli, and Bread & Puppet’s “Cheap Art” will be for sale.
The event will be held on Monday from 7 to 10 p.m. at the College’s VAPA Greenwall Auditorium. It is free for students; $20 suggested donation for others.
Founded in 1963 by Schumann on New York City’s Lower East Side, Bread & Puppet has been based in the North East Kingdom of Vermont since the early 1970s and is one of the oldest, nonprofit, self-supporting theatrical companies in the country. Well known for its visually rich, street-theater brand of performance art, Bread & Puppet revels in music, dance, and slapstick-filled celebratory protest. Believing that theater is a basic necessity like bread, the company frequently brings its work to the streets for those who may not otherwise go to the theater. Its shows are political and spectacular, frequently featuring puppets on stilts, huge masks with expressive faces, singing, dancing, and a richly elaborated repertoire of iconic characters.
Bread & Puppet has won distinction at international theater festivals in Italy, Poland, Colombia, and Yugoslavia, beginning with their break-out performances at the 1968 Nancy Festival in France. Notable awards include the Erasmus Prize of Amsterdam, 4 Obies, the Puppeteers of America’s President Award, and the Vermont Governor’s Award. Bread & Puppet is constantly active, performing at its farm in Glover and in local churches, schools and parades. It regularly tours Europe, Canada, and the United States and has recently visited El Salvador, Haiti, Russia, Greece and Korea.
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