The purveyors of puppety goodness join forces with Northampton's Primate Fiasco, a band of Dixieland proclivities and circus-like abandon. The event is dubbed The Happy Pill Circus, and promises to be a theatrical good time of rare dimension.

It's sponsored by Free Press, a group based in Florence that works for "independent, cricitcal journalism and universal access to communications." The band Hot Day at the Zoo also joins the proceedings, as do Downside Up Circus and Hoopmaster Sass.

Five days later, on Sept. 18, Bread and Puppet performs in the area once more, this time visiting Amherst for a benefit show (for the South Amherst Conservation Association) called the Sourdough Philosophy Cabaret.

Sept. 13, free, 7-10 p.m., Academy of Music, 274 Main St., Northampton, (413) 584-9032.

Sept. 18: Sourdough Philosophy Cabaret, 7 p.m., $8/students, seniors and low income, $15/general, Amherst Regional High School auditorium, 21 Matoon St., Amherst.