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26 June-2 July at Federation Square, Melbourne

Genghis (Phil) and Khan (Cam), supposedly professional rhino (Adam) herders by ERTH.

ERTH (Adam Kealy, Cameron Searle, and Phil Downing) performed in Puppet I-Doll at the BMW Edge in Federation Square. Uhm, yeah, Australia’s own… Puppet Idoll, Pup-pup-puppet Idoll, deemed safe enough for the kiddies. (We had that song stuck in our heads for the whole week.)

Other entries include: puppet hip-hop, Murray Raine’s Henrietta von Hernia and koala trapeze, Polyglot’s dancing dinosaurs, Len the shearer and Dolly the sheep, Snuff Puppets’s Chinese dogs.

At night the theatre was turned into Puppet Burlesque with all things politically incorrect. Especially animal loving.

No more shearing demo. (Shearer and Sheep by ERTH, performed by Adam Kealy (sheep), Cameron Searle and Phil Downing (shearer))

The many seductions of the rhino (ERTH again). The rhino interrupted Burlesque now and then:

It started with a condom (or two)…

And a long-stemmed rose (Thursday)…

And a garter belt…
and boa feathers (Saturday)…

Finished with red pouty velvety lips and fake cable-tie eyelashes on the final day (Adam as the rhino, with Phil and Cam).

Other happenings in Burlesque: Murray Raine’s marionettes (from super-cone-sized boob Madonna, Liza Minelli, Tina Turner, to blown-up Pavarotti, wiggly Tom Jones), Snuff Puppets’ “bovine necrophilia”, Philip Millar’s Ken Koala, Heath McIvor’s motor-mouth Randy the purple “turtle head” (hilarious, no matter how many times I’ve watched the him yelling out the same lines—I reckon it’s the way Heath controlled his voice). Both I-Doll and Burlesque were hosted by Russel Fletcher. The Age has an article on Puppet Burlesque (30 June).

Behind-the-scenes:

Left: Before the start of I-Doll. Right: Robot Mouse, Phil having a go with a wine bag, filters, soup lids and foam hanger. It ended up in Randy’s gig, blinking his flashlight for “VCA’s wank-a-thon”.

Other performances I managed to see:

Frankenstein (Jessica Wilson, Colin Sneesby, and Sarah Kriegler) at the Umbrella Revolution: Retelling the story of Frankenstein from Elizabeth’s perspective, it used very well-made, detailed and whimsical puppets. Victor is a skeletal-thin blue puppet with exagerrated facial features (large nose, drooping hollow sad eyes). And then there are a bunch of critters—grotesquely beautiful little monsters made of birds’ skulls, furs, moving about in spidery/crab-like movements. The setting is a “wooden” staircase, where all kinds of scenes rose and disappeared from. A hologram projector was also utilised for some scenes (the birth of Frankenstein, the death of Elizabeth). Definitely worth watching. If there’s anything I feel would improve the show would be (well, I’m nitpicking but) I wished the puppeteers had worn the black gloves.

One Night the Dog (Sarah Kriegler) at The Cubby: Intimate, simple, a one-woman puppet show with rotating set made out of a box.

Some display by Melbourne’s Snuff Puppets

Didn’t get to see anything else. Pity, I’ve heard nothing but good raves on Tadpole, Sad Bird Boy and Other Tales of the City, and Men of Steel. Receptions look good, and people seem enthusiastic for next year.

Articles from The Age:
Main review: Tie me up, tie me down (22 June)
Puppet Burlesque (30 June)
Closing review (30 June)

Coverage from ABC news (WMV file, 4.6 MB)

Tags:ERTH, puppetry, video