RIPERION - a river story

riparian

/rĭ-pâr′ē-ən/

1. One who dwells on the banks of a river.

Riperion

/rĭ-pâr′ē-ŏn/

1. A world in flux, between land and water.

  2. A puppet meditation made of water basins, trash, barge wood, and scavenged pianos from the streets of New Orleans and banks of the River.

Playdoh Puppet Productions Presents RIPERION: a river story

A found-object theatre performance running Nov 13 and 14 at Bywater Games at 830pm (doors at 8pm), as part of the New Orleans Fringe Festival.

Built from salvaged materials gathered across the city + riverfront, RIPERION follows a group of “Piano Creatures”, beings assembled from discarded piano parts + river debris, as they struggle to make a home in the shifting batture floodplains of Southeast Louisiana.

Inspired in part by Macon Fry’s They Called Us River Rats, the work draws from over 150 years of river-dwelling history, reimagining the lives + resilience of those who have lived alongside the Mississippi. Weathered piano fragments, once part of the city’s musical life, are transformed into living sculptures that carry both memory + sound.

Set on a stage of barge wood + water basins, the performance explores a landscape constantly reshaped by water, where boundaries between land and river dissolve. At a time when New Orleans faces ongoing water infrastructure challenges, RIPERION invites audiences to reflect on humanity’s relationship to control, collapse, and adaptation.

“Riperion is about learning how to live with water instead of against it,” says Playdoh Kolo, creator of the work. “It asks what we can build from what’s been discarded: materially, culturally, and environmentally.”

This show is sponsored in part by the Puffin Foundation, with previous iterations supported by New Orleans Tourism and Culture Foundation, and the Awesome Foundation On the Water Grant.

Note: Bywater Games is located upstairs from Big Couch up a flight of stairs.