Photo by Peter Mathew
Ever seen a story about an island, on an island for Ten Days On The Island? The lead character of You and Me and the Space Between would have a picnic with that riddle.
Tasmania’s much loved Terrapin Puppet Theatre returns to Tassie and, as is the case with several other festival works, You and Me and the Space Between‘s Tasmanian premiere sees the work well honed following performances before interstate audiences.
To really understand this work you need to look at it both through an adult’s eye and also through the eyes of the smaller people sitting next to them.
Together we see this picture book, cartoon-like world literally unfold before us, and it quickly becomes filled with the tale of The Island of the Proud Circle. The island has sprung a leak and only by uniting and using their imaginations can the people of the land find a solution.
The set is like another character, its versatility and sense of play a testament to designer Jonathon Oxlade’s talent. Comical and cartoon like, its primary colours are vibrant and changeable with the subtle presence of artist Tom O’Hern’s digital sketchings. The smaller people in the crowd were on the edge of their seat as the set transformed through the deft hands of Felicity Horsley, and scenes like the storm and the uplift brought terrific sounds of delight from both the adults and children in the audience.
Sometimes this character, the giant puppet set, feels somewhat lonely, and begs for more interaction, as we saw tantalisingly at the show’s commencement. As the show progresses it settles into a more traditional style of staging with the narrator placed off to the side, rather than engaging and playing.
The pace and quantity of words in the show is a big topic of conversation amongst the adults in the audience. It’s a dense work and the layered script by Finegan Kruckemeyer, is punched out at a dashing and enthusiastic pace by narrator Jane Longhurst. The speed and rhythm could have found variance to allow for moments to sink in and sit with you before rapidly moving onto the next sequence. This did happen at times with the pairing of musician/performer Dean Stevenson, and the cheeky play between the two performers was a joy to watch.
The smaller people in the audience however remained fixated throughout. Perhaps they were enjoying the kind of urgent and continuous stream of storytelling style they were used to sharing in the playground?
There are some interesting thematic layers to the show. World weary, media saturated adults in the audience got to reflect on the issues at the core of topics such as the Palestinian conflict, climate change, and immigration through the eyes of a child nerd with a big imagination. Assimilation, long-term vs short-term responsibility, exoticisation of foreign cultures and xenophobic metaphors are cleverly drawn out from Kruckemeyer’s script by director Sam Routledge. But there was a lovely simplicity in sharing this story with children too.
You and Me and the Space Between is also a tale of adventure, overcoming fear, making new friends, learning from people who are different to us, and finding solutions to conflict and problems with imagination and hope. A joyfully idealistic perspective which, as adults, we don’t always share with children.
As she was leaving an eight year old girl said it was ‘double awesome’ and I think that’s a pretty great critical analysis.
4 stars
You and Me and the Space Between
Terrapin Puppet Theatre
Presented by Ten Days On The Island
Writer: Finegan Kruckemeyer
Director: Sam Routledge
Designer: Jonathon Oxlade
Lighting Designer: Nicholas Higgins
Composer and Musician: Dean Stevenson
Artist: Tom O’Hern
Earl Arts Centre, Launceston: 16-18 March 2017
Peacock Theatre, Hobart: 24-26 March 2017
Ten Days on the Island
tendays.org.au
March 2017
