Puppetry

Making brilliant live theatre for small children is tricky, but Monkey Baa make it look easy.

A review of “Where is the Green Sheep?” at The Coliseum Theatre, Rooty Hill.

Small children are the best audiences in the world but also toughest. They don’t clap politely. They don’t pretend to enjoy themselves if they’re not having fun. They will just get up and wander off if they are bored. There was no danger of that during Monkey Baa’s Where is the Green Sheep?

“Where is the Green Sheep?” is a beloved picture book, a modern classic created by Mem Fox and Judy Horacek.

So, how do you adapt a treasured children’s picture book into an immersive visual theatre experience?

You’ve got to think about the size of the stage and the size of your audience. The Coliseum is a very big stage, and the stalls were crowded with hundreds of tiny children, slightly bigger children, and their grown-ups. That means you’ve got to fill that space with wonders. Think big!

You’ve also got to work out how you’re going to make the audio work. Monkey Baa wisely decided not to mic up any of their performers. Each of the three performers got to focus on puppeteering, dancing, movement and miming. The audio throughout is a bouncy mix of sparkly original music and lines read aloud by children from Bankstown West Public School.

The stage is a lovely green field with round hills and a big arched screen in a hill for projected animations. Colourful props are carried or rolled on and off stage throughout the show.

The big projection screen is a mixed blessing. Sometimes the interaction of the screen and puppets works brilliantly, for example with animated splashes for water for the Bath Sheep.

But it was interesting to watch and listen to the reactions of the children in the audience. Their response switched dramatically between animations projected on the screen and live puppetry on the stage. An animated sheep flying across the screen was watched, like it was a movie in the cinema or an animated show on the TV or a phone. No interaction. Just consuming it like filmed media. The reaction to the real live puppet sheep and live performers was completely different. Happy shouts and interaction, clapping and giggling. The difference was obvious from my seat in the audience.

The animated projections added something beautiful when they enhanced the live puppetry. A live sheep puppet flying a kite on screen. The moon and starry night sky. Rain falling. The interior of the circus tent. This brought the scenery alive. But an animation of a sheep? It’s no longer alive and real.

This was most striking with the Near Sheep and the Far Sheep. The Near Sheep was fully projected on screen, duplicating the pages of the picture book, but with the book, when the Near Sheep fills the page, it does look like that sheep is near to the reader. On the big screen on stage that sheep became the Gigantic Sheep, scaling up bigger and bigger until it filled the whole screen, looming over the three performers like Sheep-zilla.

In comparison the simple effect of the Far Sheep being taken off stage by a puppeteer and up the aisles to the back of the audience in the stalls brought whoops of laughter and instant understanding. The Far Sheep was far away from the people on the stage.

The sheep puppets, made by Kay Yasugi, are fabulous. Big, soft and squishy with some sparkles in their wool that catch the light. The three performers, Ebony Tucker, Michael Ho and Paul Grabovac, are absolutely world class.

Highlights? The Bath Sheep, the Rain Sheep and the Far Sheep.

The simplicity of a performer blowing bubbles was met with a huge cheer of ‘bubbles!’ from everyone and the Bath Sheep, splashing and being dried with a towel had the audience in stitches.

The Rain Sheep is beautiful and colourful, dancing around a lamppost and opening an umbrella, in a woolly tribute to Gene Kelly in “Singing in the Rain.”

Knitted hats off to everyone at Monkey Baa, with special mentions to director and writer for the stage Eva Di Cesare, and puppetry director Kailah Cabanas.

Monkey Baa’s adaptation of “Where is the Green Sheep?” is an absolute delight that everyone will love.

Monkey Baa’s “Where is the Green Sheep?” is touring New South Wales, Tasmania and the ACT.
https://www.monkeybaa.com.au/shows/where-is-the-green-sheep

To book tickets to Where is the Green Sheep?, please visit http://www.monkeybaa.com.au/shows/where-is-the-green-sheep.

Photographer: Robert Catto

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