Thursday 10 March 2016

Snuff Puppets - Australian Roaming Beings

Snuff Puppets is a puppetry building and performance company that has traveled all over the world delivering strange creatures that explore the relationship between puppet and audience. Their shows are often peculiar, vulgar or oddly sexual, embracing the ability that puppets have to 'say what can't be said'.
These cows are both part of a show and roaming puppets, chased by the terrifying butcher whilst causing trouble along the way. The puppets have a very unique style - some would say lacking in 'finesse' - but their personalities give them a lot of strength and their unique appearance only adds to this characterisation. The show comes to a conclusion when the butcher catches the cows, pulling out their guts in a sexual frenzy - truly peculiar and quite frightening, these shows aren't for the feint of heart - even if the audience often involves children.



The snail is slightly less terrifying as a roaming puppet. He wanders around, stealing people's hats and eating their heads. One thing that all of the snuff puppets have in common is that they have a structure, covered by lightweight fabrics which make them look slightly tent-like, and makes them easy to move. Lightweight is a quality that roaming puppets have to have - to be used for a good amount of time without needing a break, the puppeteer must be able to perform without becoming too fatigued.



The seagulls are really fun - they aren't pretty to look at, but neither are real life seagulls. Their charm is all in the way they are performed with. They are an embodiment of cheekiness, looking for trouble, stealing food and terrorising people just as normal seagulls do. The costumes being so lightweight allows the performers to be as energetic as possible, leaping around, grabbing each other with their beaks and generally being as spirited and lightweight as birds are. This is more important for a bird which can fly than my Dodo; the Dodo is partially characterised by it's 'chunky' and 'weighty' look, bumbling along the ground as a floor-dwelling creature, whilst flying bird puppets must be feather-like and almost slightly ethereal to read well.



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