Music! Horror! Science Fiction! Puppets! Yes, puppets are coming to Bend on Aug. 7 to showcase their new musical, Robopocalypse and this isn’t your average puppet show! Fresh off their celebrated and widely popular national tour, Puppeteers for Fears, brings their premiere all-puppet horror and science fiction musical comedy troupe to Bend, presenting a terrifying and hilarious new show that will have audiences rolling! Robopocalypse showcases cybernetic chaos, toe tapping tunes and laugh aloud mayhem only handmade characters can deliver.
From Page to Puppet
In a world still struggling to remember our email logins and passwords, the sudden takeover by sentient AI is more embarrassing than apocalyptic. Both imaginative and futuristic, blended with sharp satire, Robopocalypse is a hilarious cyberpunk escapade exploring the clash between human frailty and robot efficiency – set to an amazing musical score.
The musical draws inspiration from the techno thriller 2011 novel by Daniel H. Wilson. The story follows Cormac Wallace, a soldier in the Brightboy Squad, one of humanity’s last hopes in a war against an artificial intelligence named Archos, which uses robots and other machines to bring the world to its knees. Think Terminator with more emotional flashbacks and fewer explosions.
As the war ends, Wallace discovers a black cube, the size of a basketball, containing the entire history of the robot war. The black cube isn’t just data storage; it’s a “hero archive” that chronicles the rise and fall of the robot war, honoring the humans who gave their lives for the resistance.
The robots’ agenda was to share this information with their human enemies so the war would be remembered. Wallace is not initially interested in sharing the cube’s information with the other surviving soldiers; however, he changes his mind and honors the fallen humans. The climax of Robopocalypse is Wallace’s recounting of the recordings in the hero archive, in chronological order from the AI’s birth to its destruction, giving humanity a chance to remember, learn and heal. Will it work? Only the audience can find out.
Puppet Masters
The Ashland-based puppet troupe, Puppetears for Fears, was founded in 2015 when co-owner and artistic director Josh Gross wrote a one-night-only puppet cabaret horror show for Halloween.
After its enormous popularity, Gross, along with Aubrey Hollingshed, co-owner and technical director, created more live shows and have been entertaining audiences nationwide ever since. Combining puppet choreography, live music and video, each show is a truly unique experience. The cast and the crew include singers, actors, musicians and filmmakers coming together to perform something special time and time again.
Puppetears for Fears has written and performed a half-dozen original feature musicals including: “Cattle Mutilation: The Musical,” “Cthulhu: The Musical” and “The Trilogy of Terror!” and everything from supernatural monsters to killer robots to lonely sasquatches. Puppetears for Fears has performed all over the U.S. on six tours, and sold out venues nationwide. With its innovative and hilarious combination of puppetry, video, and live music accompaniment, Puppetears for Fears is one of the most unique live entertainment experiences that has come to Bend.
Whether you’re a musical theater nerd, loved The Muppets or curious about a puppet apocalypse, Robopocalypse offers a stage experience like no other. Part Black Mirror, part Rocky Horror, it’s all absurdly entertaining.
This article appears in Source Weekly July 3, 2025.
MAKE LOCAL JOURNALISM HAPPEN
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
