La Vie Dans Une Marionette (Life in a Puppet)

This delightful show is most appropriate for children who are eight years and over and quite a delight for adults.  However children younger than eight find hilarity throughout due to the incorporated comic repetition.

The show opens well before metaphorical curtain with the very personable and charming Jarod Rawiri chatting to the audience in the foyer, and getting up to some wacky ginks in the auditorium.  By Rawiri, as a witty white-faced clown, children are engaged and encouraged, to respond naturally and spontaneously. 

Rawiri is also our compere.   He recruits an unsuspecting audience member to assist him in a hysterical introduction of what to do and what not to do as a theatre audience. 

Subsequently the show progresses in a riveting silence - with the exception of piano accompaniment both played and recorded. 

Tama Jarman, a white faced pianist, is in his austere one roomed home.  Obviously an eccentric lonely character with some quirky behavioral ticks, this sensitive musician hides from the world.  However a marionette (Christopher Ofanoa) is delivered in a box.  What ensues is some stunning mime between these two characters and then a kind of disclosure from Jarman.  His character experiences a journey of self revelation that enables him to better understand himself and renders him much less stitched up.

This curious and intriguing little show is not without a lesson/moral and resolves very movingly.  Take from it what you will, it is a unique treat from New Zealand that is well worth catching in its short season in the comfortable Fairfax Theatre. 

The ticket prices are very reasonable for such a unique and evocative event.   La Vie Dans Une Marionette offers a lovely opportunity for the whole family to get together and enjoy one of the numerous family friendly offerings available at the Arts Centre Melbourne.

Suzanne Sandow