The Natural World, Onstage And All Around the Show.

On a beautiful summer night in the garden of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, chirping crickets provided a steady backbeat to the action of ''Nanabozho,'' the Mettawee River Theater Company's puppet show drawn from myths of the Winnebago, an American Indian tribe. At one point it seemed as if nature were colluding with art: the ribbits of puppet frogs joined the crickets in harmony, then counterpoint: a small symphony on the churchyard lawn. Of course performances outside have their distractions too. My attention wandered to the changing colors of the sky as it grew dark and to the mosquito chasing around my leg. But these fixations seemed appropriate. In ''Nanabozho'' the natural world is vividly and comically alive. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]