Swamp Juice

Last year’s Awesome Festival (for bright young things) was the last time Perth was graced with the presence of Canadian shadow puppeteer Jeff Achtem. In a previous incarnation, his one-man show, Swamp Juice, was scheduled for 1pm in the Swamp Tent, which is a rather bright time and place for shadow puppetry. This timeslot, along with its inclusion in a children’s arts festival, meant the show was primarily geared towards the younger demographic, narrowing the scope of the audience and changing the atmosphere.

As part of Perth Fringe World, Achtem’s new show, Swamp Juice, has a less family friendly 8pm timeslot for the season (6.30pm for the previews), suggesting a shift towards the adult market. And deservedly so: playful and clever, with moments of quiet spectacle and jokes for the elders, Swamp Juice easily translates. By all accounts, the show is also improved by both the darker PICA venue, and the timeslot outside the scope of school groups.

The show follows the self-proclaimed lord of the swamp, marked as the bad guy by his bushy eyebrows and evil laugh, as he captures the creatures around him and feeds them to each other. When he eventually captures a bird, he puts it into a boat and begins to furiously row across the swamp, until misadventure strikes and the two are tossed into a wild underwater chase.

It’s all pretty chaotic and the story is, unfortunately, the weakest part of the show. There is no fortified structure to the plot, no real character development, no real build-up and several points of confusion. Often, the pace stalls and Achtem seems to lose his thread, and the audience with it, with no guarantee that things will be picked up again. The story is essentially used as a basic, slightly lopsided clothesline on which to hang Achtem’s shadow puppetry tricks, which would pose a serious problem if the tricks weren’t up to snuff.

Fortunately for us, they very much are.  Achtem alone – his charisma, the way he interacts with the audience, his supreme comfort in our company – makes the show. This coupled with the DIY set, Achtem’s sheer inventiveness, and beautiful music and lighting design easily eclipses the weaknesses of the plot. And that’s before the 3D finale, when audience members are handed 3D glasses and underwater shadow creatures appear to soar so close that people raise their hands to protect their faces.

Part of the magic of Swamp Juice is its notion that entire worlds can be created from simple household detritus. We enter to a scattered set, messy with props, but everything is used. The screen is a bedsheet, three stacked theatre light cans allow for scene changes, and the characters are made from materials you’d find at a kids’ craft workshop. Even the top of My Bunk’s balding noggin’ becomes a character. Together, the elements of Swamp Juice bring the show close to genius, in an experience that has the rare ability to leave a great bubble of joy bobbing around in the throats of each audience member, regardless of age.