Though you might not realize it upon entering the poster-decked bar which probably would be right at home next to Don’t Tell Mama on Restaurant Row, the tiny back room of the Playbill Café has its very own puppet show going on.

These puppets have a weightier task ahead of them than the jovial characters on Sesame Street, or even the dysfunctional lot over on Avenue Q. Puppets, and various other props, are what drive the creation myth stories presented to us in Meat & Potato Theatre’s charming Beginnings, entertaining us for a brief hour and fifteen minutes over at 1409 14th ST NW.

The show presents six stories from far-reaching sources, ranging from the ancient Greeks to the Navajos, in starkly different ways. “Prometheus,” a show highlight, is performed with an assortment of props taken from a golden suitcase which doubles as Pandora’s Box (you gotta love Zeus as a floating, Incredible Hulk head). The best of these is “How The Robin Got His Red Breast”, which features two day-glo Eskimos facing off against a monstrous bear with the help of a plucky bird, and some impressive-looking Northern Lights (Meat & Potato has already demonstrated its proficiency with neon and blacklight during an eerie reading of “The Raven” during its Poe 2000 show; it’s a weird niche, but someone has to fill it).