The Melbourne Festival of Puppetry returns this September, and its line-up for older audiences might be the festival's boldest yet.
Running across multiple rooms at The Motley Wherehaus this September, the Melbourne Festival of Puppetry’s adult and teen program sits alongside the festival’s usual family shows, workshops and free roving performances happening across Naarm.
Across seven distinct shows, expect grief, mysticism, queer ecology and a very theatrical leopard slug, all brought to life through handcrafted puppetry, live music and video projection. It’s proof that puppetry in this city can be every bit as strange and ambitious as any other artform.
Melbourne Festival of Puppetry
- The Motley Wherehaus, multiple rooms
- 24-27 September
- Full program and tickets here
Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around Melbourne here.
Here’s a closer look at the shows making up this year’s adult and teen run.
Please Remain
- The Motley Wherehaus Upstairs (no lift access)
- 24-27 September, 6:30 pm
- Run time: 55 minutes
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A new work from the Aotearoa New Zealand and Australian team behind the sell-out show Last Man On Earth Is Trapped In A Supermarket, Please Remain follows the mummified corpse of an ex-air force pilot, still confined to the armchair he died in, as he longs to be released by his still-living partner.
Obsession, secrecy and a relationship that’s decayed into something far stranger than your average break-up drive the story.
Pilgrim II
- The Motley Wherehaus Exchange
- 25 and 27 September, 7 pm
- Run time: 45 minutes
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A Chile and Australia co-production, Pilgrim II invites a small audience into a shared, participatory world of objects, puppets and music.
Guided through shifting landscapes of memory and transformation, participants become part of the performance itself rather than simply watching it unfold.
Dr Pathicus’ Unnatural Adventures
- The Motley Wherehaus Cavern
- 24-27 September, 7:30 pm
- Run time: 60 minutes
- Recommended for ages 16 and over
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Inspired by queer ecology research, Dr Pathicus’ Unnatural Adventures follows an eccentric scientist whose lecture on the leopard slug gets spectacularly derailed.
The show carries a content note for references to experimentation on animals, the suppression of queerness, kink dynamics and consensual relations between human and animal characters.
Die! Die! Die! Old People Die!
- The Motley Wherehaus Upstairs (no lift access)
- 24-27 September, 8 pm
- Run time: 50 minutes
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Puppet Rats bring their remounted adaptation of the cult classic to the festival, developed with original creator David Woods after a sell-out season at the 2025 Melbourne Fringe Festival.
Three geriatric puppets, each over 100 years old and caught in a love triangle, shuffle toward their inevitable end while performers manipulate them in full view and live-streamed video drags the action uncomfortably close.
Embellish
- The Motley Wherehaus Salon
- 24-27 September, 8:30 pm
- Run time: 55 minutes
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Vanessa Ellis and Bonkel Theatre team up with Glenn Blair for Embellish, a night built from light, shadow and sound.
Puppeteers Ellis and Trina Gaskell interact with a live score from Enio Pozzebon and Glenn Blair, woven together with an original composition by Etoile Marley, exploring power as something fluid and ever-shifting rather than fixed.
Those Who Pass the Gateway
- The Motley Wherehaus Vault 5
- 24-27 September, 9 pm
- Run time: 55 minutes
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Regional Victorian outfit Mark Penzak and co bring a mesmerising demonstration blending Jungian ideas, Sufi mystical poetry, science and cosmic horror into one haunting, image-driven spectacle.
Whether it spirals into chaos or clarity is left entirely up to the audience.
The Very, Very, Very Late Puppet Show
- The Motley Wherehaus Upstairs (note: no lift access)
- 25 and 26 September, 10:30 pm
- Run time: 60 minutes
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Puppetvision closes out the nights with a late-night, anything-goes puppetry cabaret featuring two completely different line-ups across its two dates.
Between sets, roving performers including Astrid Mendez, Sanctum Theatre, Olivia Floate, Bonkel Theatre, Theresa O’Connor and The Puppet Creation Lab will drift through the venue, adding an extra layer of weirdness to the whole affair.
For more information, head here.
This article was made in partnership with Melbourne Festival of Puppetry.
