Review: “Crush” presented by No Puppet Co. on YouTube

Written by Krista Knight and virtualized by Knight and Barry Brinegar, “Crush” is a six part animated short play that follows a cockroach (voiced by Ben Beckley) as he struggles to connect with the owner of the apartment he dwells in. The play is written in a beat poetry spoken word format that really captures the strangeness of the world and the scattered thoughts of this insect. The piece utilizes motion capture technology with both Knight and Brinegar providing movements for the cockroach. This is used very affectively and adds that extra touch to make the cockroach feel more alive.

The voice acting by Ben Beckley was spectacular. Beckley gave an unsettling but sympathetic performance as the cockroach. Delivering the surreal dialogue not unlike how one would deliver a spoken word poem. Knight writes the dialogue in such a way that you get swept up in the musicality of it. The words ebb and flow like a dance and Beckley’s stellar vocal talents add the finishing touch that such a script needs.

The animation is simple, often just seeing the cockroach himself walking across the floor, dancing or, laying crushed on the ground, though the puppetry animations style and limited action forces us to focus on the words and brings us in to the absurdity of the situation. The disjointed movements also add to the unsettling nature of the piece in a really affective way.

Despite seeming, on the surface, to just be a strange series about a cockroach living in this apartment, Knight brings an incredible amount of depth to the insect. He has a sort of dependency on the human living in this apartment and we get to watch as he struggles to get noticed and connect with them, only to ultimately get emotionally and physically crushed. One episode that could be seen as the lesser of the six due to the fact that the only line of dialogue is It’s your birthday” is actually one of the most moving because the continued attempts at connecting are not working. He is being ignored. 

With artful animation, stellar voice acting, and a great script, “Crush” is certainly a piece that you will want to watch over and over. Knight’s style is such that it is hard to not enjoy yourself as you are taken on a journey with this lonely insect. Whether you watch it simply for its strangeness or for the deeper character moments, or all of the above, “Crush” is a series that you will be watching over and over.

“Crush” was presented by No Puppet Co.

It was written by Krista Knight

Virtualized by Krista Knight and Barry Brinegar

Featuring Ben Beckley as The Cockroach

It received its world premiere on YouTube.

To see it go to:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDlSUWWtSP4owk2sczZPX274tsLju8s5g