Squonk Opera debuts new participatory musical spectacle 'Brouhaha'

Squonk Opera had so much fun with a set of giant hands, they’re adding a three-story head to their repertoire.

The venerable, Pittsburgh-based art-rock group with a penchant for wacky humor and custom-built, mechanical props debuts its new show this weekend.

And “Brouhaha,” which premieres at the Steelers’ annual Kickoff and Rib Festival, might be Squonk’s most audience-participatory show to date.

The musical spectacle was partly inspired by “Hand to Hand,” the group’s 2019 show featuring a matched pair of 20-foot-tall inflatable hands, whose articulated joints audience members were invited to operate, marionette-style, using long cords.

Squonk performed “Hand to Hand” in about 20 North American cities, from Fort Worth to Calgary. They saw how much audiences enjoyed joining in, so the new show ups the ante.

“It was such a joyful, fun thing that we wanted to pursue that, the participation,” said Squonk co-founder, co-artistic director and horn-player Steve O’Hearn.

The human head in “Brouhaha” is 28 feet tall, with eyes that blink, ears that blow smoke, and a glowing brain inside (or, technically, behind, since the “head” consists of a curtain of translucent banners). The head is not there at the beginning of the show; rather, over the course of 30 minutes, the band and the audience summon it into existence by playing various musical instruments, including ones built into the set.

“The whole set here is a giant musical instrument,” said O’Hearn.

The six-piece band includes guitar, bass, drums, keyboard and horn, along with tuned horns the musicians can stomp. There’s also a “tuba-head,” a backpack style tuba that shoots streamers. The audience, for its part, will get to play the Squonkcordian, a series of six large musical bellows, each the size of a suitcase, mounted on the front of the stage and operated by pulling a rope.

O’Hearn designed the visuals while co-founder, co-artistic director and keyboardist Jackie Dempsey composed the music.

The show is called “Brouhaha,” Dempsey said, “because there’s gonna be a real ruckus there!”

Other scenic elements include six tuba horns mounted on towering scissor lifts that rise from the rear of the stage.

Those tuba bells don’t actually emit sound, and the bellows aren’t purely mechanical: Sensors inside translate the air pressure generated by the rope-pullers into sound. (Squonk learned in development that it took more pressure than people could generate to play the horns directly.)

Still, like all Squonk shows over the past three decades, “Brouhaha” will feel tactile and handmade. The scissor lifts, for instance, are cranked by hand. And audience members, with guidance from Squonk, will really get to play along with the band.

“With this show there’s certainly a sense of, from chaos, from many voices, comes one song,” said O’Hearn.

While “Brouhaha” has no narrative or explicit message, O’Hearn said that it is, in some sense, a reaction to current events.

“It’s kind of a response to conflicts that have arisen in the past decade or so,” he said. “For me, tubas shooting streamers out are people talking to each other without listening. … But on the other hand, when an audience is empowered to make tubas kinda dance together, then we’re actually having discourse, we’re talking. So, again, it’s about polarities coming together into one.”

Although Squonk plays almost exclusively outdoor shows these days, and is an old hand at local festivals, “Brouhaha” marks the group’s first appearance at the Kickoff and Rib Festival.

The free performances are at the stadium’s Gate B at 4 and 7 p.m. Sun., Sept. 3, and 1:30 and 5:15 p.m. Mon., Sept. 4.

More information on the festival is here.