THE CROWN SNATCHERS

At once impish and innocent, this is a wiggy, non-linear fictional romp in which the adventure is interwoven with wishes, dreams, puzzles, picture stories, narrative pictures, witty drawings--even a story in code. The plot, such as it is, concerns the capers of three children (the only humans in the story) who are imprisoned in the castle of a tyrannical pig king but escape, with the help of an elephant friend, by snatching the king's crown and offering it instead to their wise owl friend Johannes Loy. Later however, when the owl becomes seduced by power, another coup is necessary, and in the end (""This is as far as we got. We can't imagine how the story might continue, and since we like this ending anyway, we let it end right here"") there's a picture of the whole population assembled, each wearing a crown. (A gem of political understatement at this level.) It would be easy to turn such a project into either a sly grown-up-rib-tickling performance or a crass TV-aping one; Waechter and Eilert make it a jubilant game.