Award-winning Canadian puppeteer Adam Francis Proulx makes a romantic return to Orlando Fringe with Ferry Tale!, a tender-hearted sorta-true story that’s my pick for the most awww-inspiring show of the Festival. Instead of Muppet-style hand puppets, this time Proulx has produced a one-man animated movie that’s performed live, using paper dolls atop ingenious multi-layered backdrops that are hand-crafted out of vintage newsprint and photographs. An overhead camera and enormous projection screen allows audiences to see his manipulations, which are synchronized to jaunty jazz music as he recounts the Depression-era woes of John William Hampshire and Gladys “Mary” Ellis, a star-crossed couple separated by the U.S./Canadian border who used a legal loophole to briefly find bliss aboard an international ferryboat.
The effect is like watching a lost 1930s cartoon come to life, complete with Winsor McCay-esque drawings of the doomed lovers and an applause-worthy opening credits sequence. Even though they are only two-dimensional cutouts based on people who passed away long before my birth, I became as emotionally invested in John and Mary’s happiness as any flesh-and-blood couple. Proulx pauses the papercraft play to share some hilarious historical digressions, as well as personal memories of crossing the 49th parallel and the process he used to develop his script. Though interesting, these sidebars aren’t as strong as the central story, and I found myself eagerly waiting for Adam to return to his cardboard creations.
John and Mary (spoiler alert!) never got their Hollywood ending in real life, but they finally can at Fringe, thanks to Proulx’s playground paper fortune-teller. It might not yet be perfect, but Ferry Tale is the type of Fringe play that makes you want to believe in fairy tales like true love.
Ferry Tale!
Silver Venue, Orlando Family Stage
60 minutes; 7 & up
$15
Get tickets
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This article appears in May 14-20, 2025.