Tyrannosaurus Sex
Tyrannosaurus Sex is a Puppet Rock Opera about Bob the penis who is insecure about his size. His television is bombarded by sexual advertising including those for marital aids spruked by Mr Bumshark (whose name accurately described his personality). Even the music videos he sees are phallic as demonstrated by a sausage rock band. Bob encounters disappointing sex aids and a freak of nature in his quest for self acceptance.
The stage consisted of a small lounge room setting inhabited by the life sized main character. This puppet was so well done that it begged the question, who would have thought that a penis could be so cute? Above this setting was a large boxed stage that served as both an enlargement of his television screen and a portal to his dreams. The stage area in front of this was used as a performance space by a couple of human characters including Bob’s owner.
There’s no denying that this was a one joke show but this was completely overshadowed by the awesome puppetry and catchy songs that were performed by an acclaimed theatre company. The puppets were exquisitely detailed and many clever techniques were used to bring the characters to life, particularly the titular character who was possibly, pardon the pun, the money shot of the show. Just when you thought you had seen it all, an amazing example of remote puppetry was employed for the final number that blew the audience away.
With the inevitable repetition of penis references, the lyrics to the songs lost their humourous appeal quite early on in the show. Thankfully the bulk of the laughter was able to be transferred to the situations the characters found themselves in and their actions. Squeals of nervous but delighted laughter came as the forth wall came down and the characters invaded the audience (in an as non confrontational sense that could possibly be employed by a show about penises!).
Tyrannosaurus Sex was a brilliant show that once you can get past the fact that it is essentially 45 minutes of dick jokes, will find yourself enthralled by the story and feel genuine emotion for the characters. Open minded audiences will have a wonderful time and it would probably be the perfect show for a Hens Night.
For booking details and full details see the “Fringe Website”:http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/season/2007/show/48/