Bloody hell that was sad, but as the cast pointed out during the post-show Q&A: “sad isn’t bad, it’s just sad.” The show is often promoted as being for kids, but that’s unfairly pegging it – no one’s immune from love, loss, death and grief.
Coming in at a short and bitter-sweet 30 minutes, the show’s basically a silent film performed in real time. The characters are puppets and the sets are in miniature, all of which are cleverly projected large above on a screen and edited on the trot. Watching how the film’s made is part of the wonder.
The show revolves around Kepler and his wife. Be prepared to have your heart break a little when Kepler’s wife dies before his eyes in a tragic accident. Kepler, a scientist, builds a rocket to travel into space in an effort to see his beloved wife again – the further you go into space, the farther back in time you can see and Kepler’s prepared to travel to the ends of the universe to give it a crack. It doesn’t end happily though – the work’s too emotionally complex for a neat ending.
The cast later explained the basis upon which the show works – first, it requires a leap whereby we become prepared to believe that the characters are real and then we become invested in what happens to them. The buy-in is quick – the puppets are so simple, but they’re mesmerising. As someone was overheard saying after the show, “there was real emotion between those bits of cardboard.”
BY MEG CRAWFORD
