|
Hare Brain | Spare Parts Puppet Theatre |
|
|
|
Written by Simonne Michelle-Wells
|
|
Sunday, 05 October 2008 |
 Object Theatre, despite its ancient beginnings in rites and
rituals, is about as contemporary as you can get. In Hare Brain we see everyday
objects transform into characters before our eyes: a plastic shopping bag
becomes a hare becomes a character. None are so capable of suspending disbelief
than children, so who else to better admire a plastic bag transformed? Don’t
get me wrong, the old bag-turns-into-a-hare trick rather captured my
imagination too, but the youngsters around me could barely contain themselves.
They really saw that rabbit. And
lets’ face it, there’s nothing in this world that melts your heart and makes
you smile more than a four-year-old in a fit of giggles.
Hare Brain is an updated version of the classic Aesop fable
of the Hare and the Tortoise and revisits that age old dilemma - does fast and
furious or slow and steady win the race? This modern version comes complete
with a space-age think tank to compliment the whole gamut of everyday objects
that come to life.
This is the story of Harry (Ben Russell), the uptight marketing executive
(à la the Hare), and Toulouse (Michael Barlow),
the Zen cleaner (à la the Tortoise), who are racing against the clock to come
up with a perfect story to sell the latest must-have toy. Harry, the rather left
brained Hare, depends on his glamorous soft toys, fast cars and logic. Toulouse,
the Zen Tortoise, employs the right side of his brain to fire up his
imagination to transform objects from his cleaner’s trolley to tell his
stories.
Hare Brain’s plot is not a simple one, and yet the kids
seemed to have little trouble sitting still (for the most part) and taking it
all in. I asked my nine year old companion if he understood it all okay and he
gave me a resounding “Yeah, I loved it!” and then proceeded to roll his eyes at
me (in pity no doubt, presuming I had some troubles following the story). The
sequence in the think tank, though rather inspired with some wonderful use of
more conventional puppets, was rather abstract and lost the younger audience a
bit. The actors’ voices became a little lost in the tank under the music.
Michael Barlow and Ben Russell were wonderful though, maintaining extremely high
energy levels while creating all manner of wonderful creatures from some rather
hard-to-handle objects.
There’s not a whole lot for adults in this production, apart
from a funky McDonald’s reference, a few plays on words (“I am the winner and
you are Toulouser” says Harry at one point), and a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it
divinely inspired David Brent (from UKs The Office series) impersonation by Ben
Russell, which was priceless. The kids positively ate up the
slapstick chase scene, and even the youngest of the charges seemed to have an
innate understanding of the “It’s behind
you!” concept.
The wonderful thing about Hare Brain is that it clearly aims
to inspire and ignite some developing imaginations. These kids will never look
at a mop and bucket in the same way, and that’s a wonderful gift to give a
child. Indeed, after the show, my companion picked up a piece of fibrefill he
found on the floor of the theatre and started musing about all the things in it
that he could see. He then floored me by summing up a rather abstract show by
saying, “… things that really matter lots and lots at one point can then not
matter at all.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Spare Parts Puppet Theatre
Hare Brain
Venue: Spare Parts Puppet Theatre |
1 Short Street, Fremantle
Dates: September 27 – October 11
Bookings: www.sppt.asn.au or 9335 5044 ($2.00 phone booking fee applies)
 Quote this review on your site | E-mail
Powered by AkoComment Tweaked Special Edition v.1.4.4 |
