THEATER SCENE A finale for Figures of Speech BY MEGAN GRUMBLING

For 20 years, the Freeport puppet theater Figures of Speech has traveled the globe with a collage of interconnected Arctic tales called Anerca. If in those 20 years you have never glimpsed its nearly life-sized, carved-wood puppets and its unique shadow-theater techniques, this is the week to do it: After one final run from October 20 through 29 at the St. Lawrence, Anerca will be retired from the company’s repertoire forever.

Awarded the 1987 UNIMA Citation of Excellence — the highest honor conferred upon American puppeteers — and given awards by both the Jim Henson Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, Anerca interweaves three yarns: a young Inuit man’s initiation under an older shaman woman; historical figure Knud Rasmussen’s ambivalence at bearing both Inuit and Danish blood; and the surreal birthday of a barmaid named Beulah Borealis.

The Baltimore Daily Record praised Anerca as a gentle exploration "of perception itself," and lauded Anerca’s "wonder-filled, kind and melancholy vortex." Should that strange and ethereal center draw you, there remain 10 shows into which you can be temporarily subsumed. Anerca runs nightly at 7:30 pm from October 20 through 29. Tickets are $16; call 865-6355.