If you’ve never been worried about the welfare of a cookie cutter who’s been wedged in some lamingtons, you obviously haven’t seen the extraordinary, and wonderfully nutty, puppet show, “Men of Steel on Holiday”.
In a stroke of genius the children in the audience surely related to, the puppeteers (Sam Routledge, Tamara Rewse and Hamish Fletcher) utilised such items as the aforementioned cutters, a doll’s head, a doll that ended up losing its head in a jelly wrestling fight, red jelly in which to stage the fight, a frying pan, a large paper airplane, a feminine hygiene product and a prawn.
A little girl who guffawed through the whole event in that wonderfully uninhibited way only kids can manage was heard excitedly talking about the prawn on her way out.
Let me tell you, that piece of seafood had one evil laugh.
With the artists yapping on like people afflicted with a disease, old crocks like me were left to decipher the plot from the action taking place on a long white table.
From what I can gather, the “Men” (the cookie cutters) went on vacation to the bathroom and other places close to home, but things didn’t work out as hoped.
Frankly, the glorious fun of food going in every direction and the delicious suspense of wondering whether our heroes would be okay was far more important than getting every aspect of the storyline.
Lighting and music were used very effectively during the performance, with Michael Bolton’s “How am I Supposed to Live Without You” a great giggle when it was thought a death had occurred.
With nieces and nephews who’ve already grown up, this reviewer doesn’t get the chance to enjoy juvenile stuff much, so it was a treat to be a witness to the creativity of “Men of Steel on Holiday”.
“Men of Steel on Holiday” is playing at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) until the 28th of April. For booking details, check the MICF website