Stan's Cafe. Flinders Street Baptist Church. 11 Mar 2015
Three cardinals in their crimson uniforms and a Moslem stage manager take their Punch and Judy-style puppet show on the road. It's a dumb show - the sole vocals being scene introductions in Latin, and missing the raucous audience participation that contributed to Punch and Judy surviving to the present day from its roots in 16th Century commedia dell'arte. Something like Michael Frayn's Noises Off, we also see the frantic offstage business of the cast and crew. Not only are they shifting scenery in and out of the puppet-size proscenium at an impossible and comic rate, but the cardinals themselves are the puppets, rapidly changing head gear and tunics before looking rather foolish in front of the stage lights when gesticulating like marionettes or forming tableaus.
Naturally, the subject matter is the Bible. It was great fun to watch them assemble a scene, guess the familiar Bible story, and marvel at how they accomplish the action, like delivering the fatal stony blow to Goliath, or re-creating the siege of a city. The cardinals were very busy sliding in mountains or hanging a star or donning the keffiyeh. Periodically things go wrong, like a noisily dropped prop or missed music cues.
Beginning with a selected tour of the Old Testament, Jesus was then born, crucified, buried and everything in-between. After the ascension, the cardinal sin of going on too long with the same shtick was apparent. They took us through the Crusades and World War, all as admirably done and creative and colourful as the Bible stories, but essentially more of the same. Right up to the present day; the devil was to blame for the Israeli-Palestine conflict as well.
I felt that director James Yarker missed copious opportunities for additional tension, conflict and humour inherently present in the show's modus operandi. The fact the puppets were missing didn't cause much consternation, perhaps they are always missing. A great opportunity for strife was between the cardinals and the Moslem stage manager, but the single event of disagreement was patched up with holy patience. The relationships between the cardinals themselves was too subtle to get much interested in. The offstage business could have been a lot richer - because when it was, it got a few laughs.
A great concept with huge comic potential - seemingly designed to raise a twitter and not go too far - but it wore me out.
David Grybowski
When: 11 to 14 Mar
Where: Flinders Street Baptist Church
Bookings: bass.net.au
