The visually stunning puppet show Dead as a Dodo stays with you long after the curtain call. Presented as part of the Brisbane Festival, it displays the prodigious talents of Wakka Wakka puppet company, which is based in New York and Oslo.
It’s the first time Wakka Wakka has presented its work in Australia, and it’s a largely impressive debut, although I question whether the recommendation that it’s suitable for ages five and up is correct. Set in the very dark underworld of the dead, the themes are more likely to resonate with older children, as well as adults.
The stage is made to look like a cave featuring stalactites. That is where we meet the two main characters, a skeleton boy and a Dodo. Of course, the Dodo no longer exists, but in this offering it starts to sprout feathers. Could it be coming back from the dead? The boy leads a precarious existence. An evil King of the Bones and his daughter steal a couple of his limbs for their own purposes. But, throughout the story, the boy gets other limbs that seem to easily screw on or just grow, so it’s not as macabre as it may seem.
The play starts out in almost complete darkness, with an amorphous black, glittery shape moving about for a minute or so before it becomes obvious that it’s people. The puppeteers are wearing the black glittery costumes with balaclavas on their heads. They manage to create a magical, mystical world of quirky creatures, complete with energetic musical numbers.
Despite the setting of the realm of the dead and then the land of monsters, there’s humour in many of the components and amongst the subsidiary characters, as Dodo and the boy try to make their way up to the land of the living while constantly being thwarted. Some of the comedy involving a couple of human characters works well. On other occasions, it’s quite forced.
One thrilling element sees a large sheet of billowing red material representing the River Styx. A giant whale-like fish emerges and knocks Dodo and the boy off a rock. Suddenly, the fish and puppets are projected onto the screen as they swim underwater, then emerge again in real life. Another program highlight sees a huge woolly mammoth stride across the stage.
The production, written and directed by Gwen Warnock was inspired by horror anthology Tales from the Crypt, Dante’s Inferno and Disney’s Silly Symphonies cartoons from 1929 – 1939. There’s no doubting its visual impact and the puppeteers’ skills, however it needed more of a clean structure because the plot tended to meander.
Vicki Englund
Other reviews you might enjoy:
- Bladderwrack (Theatre Works’ Explosives Factory) – theatre review
- Ishmael (Dead Puppet Society) – theatre review
- War Horse (National Theatre of Great Britain) – theatre review
Vicki Englund is a film, TV and theatre reviewer, a credited TV screenwriter on shows including The Bureau of Magical Things and Home and Away, and a film screenwriter with several projects in development. She was the daily TV reviewer for The Courier Mail for 11 years and has reviewed films and TV for Rave Magazine, Time Off, The Courier Mail and Daily Review.
