Adelaide Festival. Queen’s Theatre. 7 Mar 2013
How shall I kill thee? Let me count the ways. Better known for their spectacular life-scale dinosaur puppetry complete with big scary teeth sought after by museums all over the world, this five year-long Erth project guided by director Scott Wright is a different, more sinister and adult kind of fright. Inspired by Murder Ballads - Nick Cave & The Bad Seed’s ninth album (1996), and described by Rolling Stone as “literate, sultry and tortured” – Murder uses multimedia, sublime puppetry, and a single actor to channel Nick Cave’s macabre and morose fascination with death at the hands of other persons. And we like to tantalise ourselves as well, don’t we, with this dangerous theme in the safety of the theatre?
This is a very slick production brimming with theatre magic. The scenes are linked by the energetic performance of Graeme Rhodes whose character initially attempts to elucidate and even justify our curiosity. He, too, is manipulated by the puppeteers – a delicious bit of irony – as we see our protagonist journey through his fantasies and history. Did he witness a murder? Is he a hero when committing one? Only once is a song taken literally with superb and pornographic puppetry, the rest of the show is much more interpretive of Cave’s musings. Don’t expect to hear “Where the Wild Roses Grow,” though, which is a shame.
The puppets are expertly given life with realistic movements and sometimes simply a compelling turn of a head, but many of them subsequently also get the kiss of death. An exciting exchange is a wild shoot-out in a video game, and there is plenty of simulated fornication (no less titillating with puppets) but generally Rhodes is workmanlike in his performance and is more analytical than emotional.
Scott Wright has very successfully brought Nick Cave’s darkest writing to the stage in a fulfilling, frightening and unforgettable theatrical illusion.
David Grybowski
When: 6 to 10 Mar
Where: Queen’s Theatre – Playhouse Lane.
Bookings: adelaidefestival.com.au
