If you crossed Punch and Judy with Tom and Jerry, but replaced Jerry with say... a cockroach, then you can somewhat arrive to Ralph Lee's Communications from a Cockroach: archy and the under side[sic] at downtown Manhattan's HERE Arts Center April 26-May 20. The opening night is set for May 6.

Based on poet and New York Evening Sun writer Don Marquis' cockroach-and-cat duo, Archy and Mehitabel, puppeteer Lee strings them up and gives them life. In Communications from a Cockroach, the poetic roach Archy conjures up a world of fantasy in which he explores art, love, life and of course, roach poison.

Director-designer Lee, who founded the internationally known Greenwich Village Halloween Parade, has won numerous awards for his work in performance and puppeteering. He has garnered two Obie Awards, a Bessie Award, two American Theatre Wing Design Awards and two citations for excellence from Union Internationale de la Marionnette (UNIMA), an international puppetry organization.

Lending their hands to Communications from a Cockroach, being presented by the Mettawee River Theatre Company and The Shakespeare Project, are George Drance, Tom Marion, Jane Catherine Shaw and Sam Zuckerman. The show also features an original score by Neal Kirkwood.

For tickets to see Communications from a Cockroach at HERE, 145 Sixth Avenue (between Spring and Broome Street), call (212) 647-0202 or visit www.here.org. — by Ernio Hernandez