Sunday, November 25, 2007

Robocop

After attending today's puppet theater performance, we now know the secret to Paul Verhoeven's source material for the lead law enforcement official in the futuristic dystopia of New Detroit. When we looked at the schedule, we saw that the title of today's play was the "Adventures of Робокопа." Erik joked that it was probably about a robot. Lea's superior Ukrainian knowledge shone through, when she said: "it is probably about Robocop." Indeed, the story revolved around three animals who proved to be a menace to Ukraine's streets by not following the rules of the road and were apprehended by a man in silver bejeweled gear: Robocop. To be fair to the animals, by not following the rules of the road, they were simply normal Ukrainian drivers. Robocop, whose anthem "Ya Robocop [I am Robocop]," a kind of Old School Ukrainian rap, was repeated several times during the performance, sent them to his driving school. While the offending elephant and monkey showed up, the bear skipped class, prompting Robocop to call upon children from the audience to help find him, which they did. Robocop's performance was Oscar-worthy - at least in Carter's mind. He turned to Erik during the performance, and with a look of wonderment in his eyes, said "Daddy, it's a robot!" The other children enjoyed the performance too, rapping "Ya Robocop" all the way out the door.

We suspect that this may be President Yushchenko's solution to the problem of the traffic police. He disbanded this unit - the GAI - and since then drivers have felt quite comfortable disobeying the rules. Robocop refused a bribe from the elephant, and was an upstanding civil servant requiring limited maintenance costs. Since beat police make around 500 grivnyas per month ($100), corruption is bound to surface. Robocop could solve everything, just like he did at the puppet theater.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Parents analyze and children simply enjoy, even without understanding the words. The wonder of puppets, even when being used for a message. Too bad Carter did not pick up the rap...would have been funny!