In a show that sets a new bar for innovation, insight and breathtaking equality – the Buntport ensemble has figured out a way to let everyone, and no one, star in “Tommy Lee Jones Goes to the Opera Alone” – the original Denver troupe has conceived a brilliant commentary on culture and celebrity.

The latest show by Denver’s most collaborative theater company was inspired by a chance encounter in New Mexico: Buntport’s Brian Colonna and Hannah Duggan spotted Jones, solo, in the box-office line for the Santa Fe Opera’s “La bohème.”

It’s not hard to guess their immediate reaction. Agent Kay from “Men in Black” at the opera? The crusty man on the moon from “Space Cowboys”? The grave robber from “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada”?

Well, why not? Who’s to say how Tommy Lee Jones spends his own time? Except … if you’re Tommy Lee Jones, and you’re out in public, are you ever really offstage? If you’re Tommy Lee Jones, or anyone else with an instantly recognizable name and a tail of paparazzi, do you actually have a private life?

All that hovers between the lines in “Tommy Lee Jones Goes to the Opera Alone,” which features a puppet stunningly evocative of the Texas actor known for his taciturn characters.

The puppet Tommy Lee Jones has no mouth, but expressive eyes and eyebrows, and fantastic outsized hands. Each of the three movable parts requires a separate Buntport actor to manipulate, creating what may be the most droll cast credits ever: Colonna as Head, Evan Weissman as Right Hand, Erin Rollman as Left Hand and Erik Edborg as Voice.

All the action takes place in a cafe where Tommy Lee Jones is seated with a piece of pie, a glass of water and a cup of coffee. He’s clearly a regular and on good terms with the waitress, Jane, played by Duggan, the only durably recognizable Buntport member.

The other actors are hidden within Bunraku- style black suits and face masks. They almost (but not quite) fade into the background as they animate Tommy Lee Jones, who pontificates on (among other things) opera, the transience of live performance, “Turandot,” seppuku, Elvis Presley’s operatic potential, pie and breaking the fourth wall.

The audience first glimpses the actors in black as they stroll on stage to stretch and don their gear like scuba divers. There’s a frisson of unrequited love from Weissman to Rollman, and from Rollman to the impervious Colonna, creating a humming tension underneath Tommy Lee Jones’ rambling discourse.

Try to sit in one of the first three rows for the best view of the remarkable mechanics required to energize Tommy Lee Jones. You’ll want to see how the puppeteers coordinate when Tommy Lee Jones ambles off stage to take a phone call, and the gymnastics involved when he crosses his extremely thin legs. (His jeans came from the girls’ department.)

Those fantastically detailed wooden hands, carved by puzzle maker Kagen Schaefer, who also made the expressive face, are worked by wire filament threaded into gloves that Rollman and Weissman manipulate. The dexterity required to pick up a glass of water or a fork is a complicated task that only another puppeteer, or a Craig Hospital patient, can fully appreciate.

“Tommy Lee Jones Goes to the Opera Alone,” which runs for 75 minutes with no intermission, is smart, challenging, witty and may be Buntport’s best collaboration yet.

-Claire Martin, March 23, 2012, Denver Post