Luminato Festival and others. Dunstan Playhouse. 4 Mar 2015
The title sounds ominous, like somebody or something must fail. But it's nothing like that at all. It's a love story - a gentle, heartfelt, sweet narrative of falling in love. There are no actors. There are puppeteers, live-screening their beer bottle-high creations performing in tiny sets under dim lights right there on stage - not too visible, but projected onto the big screen to a filmic effect. The Afiara String Quartet pries open your heart with compelling compositions; think of Yo-Yo Ma. But it's Kid Koala of Montreal at the keyboard, and making the necessary strange sound effects, who is pulling the strings - his creation and his musical score.
The lead puppet reminds me of Scott Adams's office-inhabiting cartoon engineer, Dilbert. What spell have they cast that this puppet of a robot, yearning for a fine looking lady puppet, should make me sigh? There is enchantment when he teaches himself to play a heart-shaped ukulele to woo his girl. There is magic in the air as we see them walk city streets in new lovers' rapture or sad disappointment. How quaint that a woman could fall for a robot with spider eyes, who could erase his memory by snipping the magnetic tape in his chest, and who lives in a flat furnished like it's the 1950s.
I had a lump in my throat the whole time, and I cannot be the only one, what with the standing ovation at the Australian premiere of this exclusive-to-Adelaide production. I still don't understand how I could feel so alive. How did they capture something so utterly human with such blatant make believe?
David Grybowski
When: 3 to 7 March
Where: Dunstan Playhouse
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
