Steel crazy: Tamara Rewse, left, with her co-performers in Men of Steel.
ERIN PEARSON
OLD-school “craziness” will break out in Geelong this weekend when Men of Steel rolls into town, according to performers.
The award-winning puppet extravaganza will have travelled across the world before arriving in Geelong for its show on “the pros and cons of living in a consumerist society”.
Performer Tamara Rewse said the production used three mad chefs and lots of food to fuse cooking, theatre and puppetry.
Rewse said the show would fill Geelong Performing Arts Centre with “chaos and mess”.
“There are three of us and we wanted to put on a show that entertained both adults and children, so what better way to do that than with mess,” she said.
“The three of us were all interested in object theatre and playing with all kinds of crazy objects and discovered it was something totally absurd and crazy that people wanted to see, so we decided to create a whole show and we’ve now taken all around the world.
“Next stop: regional Victoria.”
Rewse said the production’s “cookie cutters” wanted to destroy everything “nice and harmonious” throughout the show, including food.
“When cookie cutters meet bread, lettuce or whatever it may be that there is a lot of destruction and a lot of mess,” she laughed.
Rewse met co-stars Sam Routledge and Hamish Fletcher while studying puppetry at Victorian College of Arts.
Although Routledge was majoring in media and Fletcher puppetry-making, the trio gelled.
“There’s something about puppetry that’s very powerful,” she said.
“You don’t need words, just sounds, because you’re working with a visual matter.
“Often people recognise a colour or sound with being curious or angry and it really breaks down that language barrier to make the show resonate around the world.”
Rewse said the show had presented its feast of explosive popcorn, watermelon slashing and the felling of a broccoli forest in London, Beijing, Hong Kong and even Edinburgh.
The show won a Melbourne International Comedy Festival director’s award and London’s Time Out magazine named it one of the top seven children’s shows.
Rewse said she was thrilled to be touring with Men of Steel.
“There’s something so powerful about making people laugh. It’s so great to make a room full of people wet their pants.
“For us it’s probably more satisfying than anything.”
Men of Steel will be at the performing arts centre on Saturday.
