Spoiler alert! Puffs aren’t the most popular house.
Hiii!! Still Mandy Gunther. Still a Puff. Learning to be proud of that thanks to Rogue Swan Theatre Company’s production of Puffs: or Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic. Attending the round-table shenanigans wasn’t enough; I had to go see the show! And what a show! Talk about tickle-your-insides-until-you-almost-die-laughing! Directed by Lilli Burril-Gordon, with four members of The Rogue Swan Band (Jason Bock, Jimmyo Burril, Jeremy Hicks-Kachik, and Josh Hutch) there’s madcap comedy, feel-good tomfoolery, and a whole lot of shenanigans going on— complete with puppets, dancing, and— chocolate swans!? (Yes, you can buy a chocolate swan— complete with Chocolate Swan Collector’s Cards! at the performances to support Rogue Swan Theatre Company!)
Silly good times could not be had without a stellar Director, Lilli Burril-Gordon, her trusty stage manager, Bre Lewis, and a “Puppet, Prop, & Backstage Mayhem” Team, April Burril, Jasper Burril, Melissa Fazzino, and Caitlyn Shaffstall. And the Tech Team, which is actually just listed as Burril-Gordon and Lewis. The show has lights. Most definitely. Swirling gobos, colored fluff, blinky stuff, you name it. Costumes— yep. Those too. And PUPPETS. Whether it’s the glimmering three-part-float-together Castle of a Certain School and the three sock-hand-puppets to make up the houses of Brave, Smart, and Snake…or the enormous (and honestly terrifying) hands and robo-light-eyes of the soul-sucking…um…dement—ed security guards from that third year at that certain school. There’s a lot happening. It’s bordering on aesthetic overload but in the best way possible.
Every performance is different. There’s some improv stuff happening. At the performance I attended I got “Wizarding Idol” and my ribs still hurt from laughing so badly. The magnificent band (the aforementioned Bock, Burril, Hicks-Kachik, and Hutch) rolled out some random tunes (that apparently they and a certain Xavier Smith character had discussed without informing the players on stage) and the audience was delighted in triplicate as three characters tried…well two tried valiantly and one slayed-the-hell-out-of-The-Time-Warp…to do their best! And the brilliance of this moment is that you’ll get something completely and totally different and radically entertaining and equal parts amusing. Watching this troupe of 11 performers, under Director Lilli Burril-Gordon’s nurturing guidance come together for mostly giggle-worthy nonsense is priceless and the uplifting entertainment everyone needs right now. But Burril-Gordon finds heart in the production as well. Matt Cox (the play’s author) has written a glorious send-up to the ‘Potter-verse’ but also built in a great deal of heart and touching moments that speak volumes about friendship and belonging. Burril-Gordon has found a masterful way to balance these earnest moments against the high-octane shenanigan-nonsense of the performance and the result is spectacular. If there’s a complaint (this isn’t one but some people might take note and/or issue) it’s that the Narrator (played by the gloriously gifted Dane Hutchinson) tells the audience that it’s only going to run for 110 minutes. In actuality, the play started at 8:00pm and didn’t finish until after 10:40. Now that does include the intermission, but the noteworthy takeaway here is that you never notice that it’s running that long. You’re engaged every step of the way; you’re laughing your backside off from the word go and time is flying. Because you’re having so much fun!
I don’t to spoil all the secrets— but good grief and gravy are there some spectacular nonsense bits happening all throughout. Alex Fintak is playing most of the male professors at— I’m calling it WitchSchool because I’m getting too lazy to type out “A Certain School of Magic and Magic.” (Yes, yes, I know copy/paste is a thing. Shush.) And he’s hilarious. The twitchy, crazed nature as Professor Turban is in direct opposition to the composed, monotonal delivery of A Certain Potions Teacher, which is the exact opposite of the bouncy blithering nonsense of Professor Locky, and so on. When Fintak (and others) appears as ghosts, in his case, Mr. Nick, the wibbly-wobbly-gyring-gimble-like movements are hysterical!
Opposite of Fintak, taking up the female teacher track is Amy Tucker, whose brogue is thick as Professor McG, whose worrisome intonation as Professor Sprouty is hilarious, and whose ‘First Headmaster’ is very regal and even more becalmed than that “…says calmly…” moment from book four! But where this Tucker soars is in her role as Xavia Jones. A rogue, relentless Death Buddy (though not to be confused with the nameless/faceless Death Buddy that Tucker plays in other scenes…pretty much everyone who isn’t the golden-duet-plus-one or Voldy plays a Death Buddy!) Tucker is slick and hilarious in her element as Xavia Jones and it’s awesomesauce.
Marion Jackson may principally play Susie Bones…who whines a lot…but you’ll laugh your rump right off with her antics when she’s playing Myrtle. Or as she flits and flees through playing Harry. You get similar amusements from Arianna Costatina in her back-track roles of Bippy— whose agonizing ‘non-existence’ scene is some over-the-top-schmacting-chaos that has the audience rolling in the aisles. She’s also the dragon. (That means something!) And of course she’s Sally Perks and Blondo Malfoy, which is really funny too. You get a great deal of chaotic shenanigans from Leanne (Katie Gordon) who might just be the puffiest Puff among the Puffs because she’s so soupy and sweet and silly and made of nonsense. The interplay between Gordon’s Leanne and Rob Tucker’s J. Finch, especially once she goes down the “he’s imaginary” rabbit hole is unhinged. And she’s got one of the most heartfelt explosion moments in the play near the end as well.
If you want to talk about a multi-track, scene-stealing, chaos-machine— enter Rob Tucker (who due to unforeseen injury-based circumstances, took the track over from Nathan Gordon.) Be it chuckle-cluckin’ Uncle Dave or his ‘emotional damage’-style wails from Tucker when he gets insulted over being called ‘Fat’ as The Friar, Tucker will have you rolling in your seat (until he rolls through the seats; hold onto your drinks, everyone!) It’s Tucker’s facial expressions and body-language that are the real uproarious laugh-maker, especially when he’s playing J. Finch and deals with being imaginary and ‘goes to the petrified place.’ And his crude, d**che-canoe attitude as Zack Smith is undeniably hysterical, especially when he’s making things up on the fly during that “do whatever you want” scene— which is guaranteed to be different at every performance.
Rolling into the ‘core’ performers, who have one (or in Jesse “Clutch” Hutchinson’s case, two) role for the whole show. You’ve got the aforementioned Dane Hutchinson, who plays the Narrator— remember somewhere earlier in this review when I said something nice about him? Still true! He’s got a real handle on sarcasm and quick-wit. And when he dashes out into the audience with chocolate and tissues…well…sit in the front seat if you can! What’s really impressive about Dane Hutchinson’s character isn’t his accent (though that’s great) or his wit (also great) but it’s how he stays committed to his role. You’ll see him loafing on the side-step-ups overtop the lower-stair exits beneath the stage, book(s) in hand, reading. He’s actually reading and turning pages as the action is happening. Like a real narrator! It’s genius!
Now for the other Hutchinson— the Jesse variety. Who is indeed Buff-for-Puffs and plays two completely different characters that are so polar opposites, it’s just feral! As the menacing Voldy— complete with taped nose and speedo-swim-cap— you get this vocal affectation that’s off the chains. And whatever that scene with Rob Tucker (as a Death Buddy) is where…things…are happening has the whole audience cracking up maniacally (and if you watch closely…the other Death Buddies on stage are doing their best not to dissolve into laughter as well! You know it’s funny when!) But as winsome, sweet-natured Cedric, Hutchinson is really awesome. There’s just a gentleness to his approach when it comes to handling Cedric and it builds up that ‘heartfelt feel-good’ stuff that gets laced and woven cleverly throughout the script. He’s excellent as both roles and you won’t regret paying to see him in this show!
Will Conway. Jess Langley. Caleb Gordon. This is not the Golden Trio that you’re looking for. Though Jedi mind-tricks probably don’t work in the Potter-verse. This is, however, a golden trio of awesome— with Conway as Oliver, Langley as Megan, and Gordon as Wayne. Three unsuspecting Puffs who get to experience seven years at WitchSchool through the puffiest-Puff eyes! Conway is like the balancing force among them, nerdy and yet simultaneously awesome, even though he starts off being really bad at magic. Gordon is a tour du force, playing all aspects and angles of the character, including that year he gets to be really moody and cranky. And Langley is the epitome of angry-bitter-goth-chic-gone-good. The character arc that she pulls Megan through is brilliant. These three get some honest-to-wizardness ‘serious character work’ (that’s not to slag on the other eight performers, because everyone is earning O’s in their acting skills for this show) going on their respective characters and it makes the show feel that much more authentic. Like yes, there’s a crap-ton of comedy and silliness and nonsense, but also— heart. And from the Puffs! The camaraderie that these three build, both with each other, and interacting with the various others— like that too-touching moment with Hutchinson’s Cedric and Gordon’s Wayen, “…when the tournament is over, I’ll teach you everything I know…” (double-gut-punch if you know anything about how that book ends!) or the way they all come together to help one another out; it’s a beauty and a charm and a humor and a heart that just defies description.
They are not a threat! (except to your bladder and your eyeballs from laughing so hard…and if you’re in the aisle Rob Tucker comes barreling through, to your drink!) Please be their friend! And friends support friends by going to their shows! So go see Puffs because it’s cute. Because it’s silly. Because it’s funny. Because it’s a great way to support the fans without supporting She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Because it’s a great way to support Rogue Swan Theatre Company and to see what amazing things they get up to when they set down and do a play!
Puffs plays through May 17th 2025 with Rogue Swan Theatre Company in residence at The State Theater of Havre de Grace— 325 St. John Street in downtown historic Havre de Grace, MD. Tickets can be purchased at the door or in advance online.
To read the puffiest interview that ever puffed about Puffs, click here.
