PUPPETRY REVIEW: Returning

What do you get when you combine American Puppetry Masters Eric Bass and Ines Zeller Bass, and 15 skilled and enthusiastic ‘puppeteers’? The answer is Returning – A collaborative puppet show based on the theme of ballads (which in essence is a song or poem that tells a story).

Having worked with several puppet companies myself, and maintaining a love for the art, I have a fairly good understanding of the finesse and illusion that comes with puppetry in all of its shapes and forms.

While there are many different kinds of puppetry, ranging from black theatre and marionettes to Bunraku and body puppets, it is the technical side of the art that is the most important. For in puppetry the puppeteer must merge and become as one with the puppet, so that at the end of the day it is not the puppeteers, but the puppets themselves that are telling the story. And in Returning there were many stories to be told.

The first ballad that was told – or rather sung – was Cruel Sister (Directed by Sabrina D’Angelo). Beginning the piece with some piano accordion and a Fa la la la la la, we were introduced to 2 sisters, one beautiful and one not so beautiful. Surrounded by the crashing waves of the ocean, these 2 sisters were really rivals fighting for the love of the same man. Of course only one sister could win and so it goes without saying that the other must lose, or in this case die.

The puppetry in Cruel Sister drew the audience in to what seemed like an ancient ballad and an age old story. It was clever in its use of theatrics and the way that it integrated the puppeteers into the piece, as well as the use of fabric and sound to create the overall dark feeling of the storyline.

Next up was Song of the Wandering Angus (Directed by Rachael Guy). Although in this one the puppets were very well made and a little bit eerie even, I seemed to get a bit lost in the storyline. From what I could gather a very lonely man had killed a very big fish and was just about to eat it when he had a change of heart.

Next thing you know he is sleeping and we are invited to enter into his dream world where we see all kind of strange things like a smaller version of the fish with his face on it and a tree with many faces on its braches. Slightly surreal but intriguing none the less, with the most beautiful singing by two very talented women who know how to harmonize.

Finally we witnessed Lord Franklin’s Lament (Directed by Annie Forbes), based on a traditional ballad commemorating the loss of Sir John Franklin's British Arctic Expedition of 1845. Although this piece was a little slow moving, it was an interesting and sad story just the same. Again we saw some very nice puppetry which this time was accompanied by the clever use of a large piece of white paper to represent an iceberg.

Although in all of the three pieces the puppeteers were in full view and were costumed to be part of the piece – the last piece even saw the puppeteers wear white - this never once took away from the puppetry illusion or the fact that it was really the puppets who were telling the stories.

Without a doubt Returning had a strong ocean theme with lots of floating away into dreams and realities both.

Returning
VCA Studio 45, 45 Sturt St, Southbank
Dates/Times: Fri 14 & Sat 15, Tue 18– Sat 22 Nov at 7.30pm
Sat 15 & 22 Nov at 2pm
Cost: $20/$15
Bookings: 03 9685 9256 or vca-puppetry@unimelb.edu.au