‘Sticks, Stones, Broken Bones’ is an utterly delightful show that promises and delivers entertainment for the whole family. It is about as wonderfully Fringe as you can get. How often do you get to see top notch shadow puppetry from Canada that is hand made out of cardboard, suitcases, fluffy toys and all sorts of other household stuff?
To prove how simple puppetry can be Jeff Achtem begins by creating a puppet before our eyes. Using non verbal communication he gives an audience member the job of tearing off bits of sticky tape for him, which is added to a balloon and a clown wig. Then a small sweet story was told. Though the rest of the puppets were already made, that turned out to be the basic structure of the show. Intricate fascinating setups for simple yet awesomely simple sweet stories and vignettes. By projecting his puppetry up onto a big screen he could use some tiny cut out objects and everything could be clearly seen by the audience.
One of my favourite aspects of this show was that Jeff was keenly aware of not only creating stunning images, but also making the puppets and bits and pieces interesting and amusing in their own right. Many of the cardboard heads have written on them My name is Fred or simply Liz or Roger. Hands might have L or R on them. More importantly they are all so brightly colourful. A lot of the puppets were 3 dimensional and many are made out of gloves, so could technically be called glove puppets.
One elaborate scene he created involved a head on each hand and the puppet hands attached to his feet. He then performed an amusing scene about a chess match while lying in a chair employing what he called ‘puppet yoga’. More elaborate still was his home made conveyer belt that appeared out of and disappeared into a suitcase. He could then make his puppets move on and interact with it. This included a horserace and a dog going for a walk which utilised some tubing and water to replicate the dog peeing much to the joy of everyone.
The kids were mesmerised as well as laughing and grinning throughout. But you don’t need kids as an excuse to enjoy this show. Its one of the sure bets of this year’s fringe festival, check it out.
Visit the Fringe Website for booking details.