A film noir sock puppet musical. You read that right.
When Andrew Wilcox began his graduate thesis in composition at Cal State Long Beach, he didn’t expect his composition to expand into a full-fledged musical.
Wilcox and his friends—particularly Hannah Neuhauser—shared an obsession of film noir, a genre of sultry black-and-white films that defined the post World War II era. They had recently gone to the theatre to see ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?,’ a comedy that blended noir themes with the unexpected medium of animation.
“It was initially just a joke to have sock puppets as the focus for a serious film noir musical,” he said. “But as soon as I started committing, it became a challenge. How can I convince people to empathize with something as simple as a sock puppet?”
The musical was created by a team of actors, musicians and production artists from various organizations like the Long Beach Playhouse and the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music. Larry Mura, the playhouse’s technical director, combined the dark themes of noir with lighthearted humor when writing the screenplay.
Despite its playful medium, the musical taps into the same serious themes as traditional noir—navigating an inescapable world that is deeply unfair and seemingly inalterable.
“There was no escape from Sock Town. Likewise, there is no escape from the abandoned streets of noir. She is isolated. She’s alone. And this dark aspect—that people, in this case socks, will always be put to the sidelines or someone else’s problem to look over and manage—is the contemporary metaphor for systematic racism in America.”
-Hannah Neuhauser, who plays the sock puppet “Jennifer” in SOCK TOWN and studied noir film during her masters in film history at CSULB
“If you truly analyze noir, it’s remnants of the failures caused by the Great Depression,” said Neuhauster, who studied noir film during her masters in music history at CSULB. “A little nothing, gritty drama mystery for the working class citizen: having such a driven individual who realizes he cannot escape the world he has—but still tries to fight it with whatever ethics that he has left.”
SOCK TOWN follows a sock named Madeline, who has lived in “Sock Town” for two years. A bar singer, she wants to move out of the city for bigger and better things, but can’t find a way out. Unbeknownst to her, the town is an internment camp where political dissidents are imprisoned after having their memories wiped.
The town houses a hybrid mix of humans and socks. Wilcox uses the visual difference between the two as a plot element: those who are humans realize their imprisonment, while socks represent those who are not aware of their dire situation.
“We kind of go along and see how it plays out in her eyes, her discovery of finding out that she was once herself a human and lived within this other world that she craves to be in,” Mura said. “But realizes now that it’s more corrupt than she ever knew.”
The play also comes at a time when the origins of noir are rearing their heads yet again. The COVID-19 pandemic has left many in similar circumstances as the Great Depression: feeling unsupported by the federal government and left to fend for themselves in a dire economic climate ravaged by historical inequities perpetuated by racism.
“I like that idea of there being this authority type figure that you look up to, and they’re not there to give you as much hope as you once thought that they would,” Mura said. “It certainly has resonance with today’s situation as well.”
“There was no escape from Sock Town. Likewise, there is no escape from the abandoned streets of noir,” Neuhauser said. “She is isolated. She’s alone. And this dark aspect—that people, in this case socks, will always be put to the sidelines or someone else’s problem to look over and manage—is the contemporary metaphor for systematic racism in America.”
The medium of puppetry presented a challenge to most actors. Newfound puppeteers like Neuhauser found themselves stuck under a faux miniature floor—sock in the air and out of sight—hoping for greatness.
“I would practice in the mirror to see if I could change her eyebrows with my knuckles, or the facial expressions by moving my thumb to make her grimace,” she said.
The composition of the musical, courtesy of Wilcox, uses a number of musical techniques traditional to noir filmmaking: the sullen singular trumpet, a dissonant string quartet, a marching drum that pushes the character towards their disturbing yet necessary realization of the truth.
The production, born pre-COVID and emerging whole in a new world, is tinged with the same optimism that noir looks to ridicule.
“Theatre thrives. Theatre will always thrive, when collected individuals are passionate about a project,” Neuhauser said. “SOCK TOWN would not exist if not for the amazing collaboration of the Long Beach artistic community.”
SOCK TOWN will debut on YouTube on Friday, May 7 at noon. The musical will be streamed on YouTube. Donations are welcome and will be used to fund future productions.
