Everybody is a Puppet

Coral Drouyn gives some insight into one of the great attractions to come at the premiere Summersalt Festival.

The title isn’t meant to be a philosophical statement but rather a literal one. Everybody IS indeed a puppet, claimed to be the largest in the world at 26 metres long. It’s monstrously large, but a gentle monster, though some will think it confronting. It is, quite simply, an astonishing creation – a complete being that gives birth, breathes and even poos; hopefully providing the audience with insight into what it is to be human physically, without any of the viscera we might have to contend with in a “living” body.

For most of us growing up, puppets meant The Muppets or The Thunderbirds and, even further back, Punch and Judy shows. They were entertainment and mostly without social commentary, though one could argue that Punch and Judy could have new life today in the war against Domestic Violence.

Andy Freer, the artistic director of Snuff Puppets, and the driving force behind Everybody, has always seen things differently, even when at school.

“I always did Theatre at school, never Art,” he tells me, “and yet I was drawn to big spectacles and elements that were magical and not reality as we know it.  I didn’t want to deal with actors, and individual opinions that put their own agenda on a vision. It seemed to me that would only restrict the imaginative process. I guess, in a way, puppetry is an outlet for a need to control, but only the outcome, not the process. I have a fantastic team working with me. The whole idea of Life with a capital L, and of being Human – with birth, death and all that happens between, is truly Theatre at its most magical.”

Freer is a writer, director, puppeteer, designer and performer who started making giant size puppets back in 1998 before founding his own company. Even while he was experimenting with giant forms there was one thing that was immutable to him….the puppets must be for the people and not elitist in any way. He wasn’t interested in simply creating for those who could afford hefty ticket prices – and so the whole process of Snuff puppets has been driven more by love than money.

Nevertheless, some money is necessary just to fund what you want to portray. Everybody started in experimental form in 2012, and the audience was encouraged to interact with the huge form (though several metres smaller then) and its detachable organs….a foot, a nose…an ear.

“Everybody is a grand experiment, a manifestation, celebration and liberation. I wanted to experiment with the theatre of the human body, the drama, the metaphor and the magic. I want to take our audience to a place they could never have imagined. A place that celebrates the human body in all its surreal and visceral beauty, that liberates us from the banal and ordinary to the wonder and extraordinariness that is everybody, every human body, Everybody”. This was his Mission Statement.

It was an astonishing experiment, but Andy and his team wanted to push it further – and that required a far greater budget than the company could afford.

“We turned to Crowd Funding through Pozible,” Andy says. “We weren’t sure how much support we would get, but we’d exhausted our other funding possibilities.” Luckily the public supported the project and this allowed Snuff Puppets, in their Footscray workshop, to make Everybody far more sophisticated. Yet, as a puppet to be manouevred by performers, it had to remain lightweight and still be convincing. “Without creating magic, there wasn’t a lot of point,” explains Andy.

Everybody’s huge frame is made out of lightweight bamboo; its skin is especially woven fabric; various organs are actually inflatable (the lungs, for example, inflate and deflate) and “blood” courses through “veins”, allowing the heart to pump… and there is still the birth of a baby, and the detachable organs that interact with the audience.

What will it cost you to see this remarkable creation? Absolutely NOTHING. It is free outdoor entertainment as part of the inaugural Summersalt festival taking place in Melbourne over 5 weekends from 23^rd January to 21^st February at Southbank. However, if you want a sneak preview, you can see it from Dec 4^th to 6^th – that’s later this week – at Testing ground – a new public space in City Road just behind the Arts Centre.

Snuff puppets have taken their extraordinary creations to audiences all over the world, and every audience is different. Some, like Indonesia, have a rich history of puppetry, particularly set to music. The common factor is that all release the child inside of them and recognise the magic. Suspension of disbelief works for every colour, creed and age group. And whilst there are some very adult concepts at work, children are generally not afraid of the monstrous size.

“It’s because everything is so large it is both recognisable and yet alien. Kids have nothing of that scale to compare it to, so they have nothing to fear.This promises to be an amazing part of our summer, but I can’t wait until February….I’ll see you there on Thursday.

Photographer: Ponch Hawkes.