Sticky Apple Legs

Dani Solomon from the Funny Tonne competition said:

" 7/10

A cute little play with puppets about a person being diagnosed with having a city in his head. It's kind of like watching a short film done live with puppets (including a slightly dodgy Doctor), lego people and a song.

It only goes for about half an hour and it's a good way to start off a night at the trades hall."

The Pun said:

"Moppets (don’t mess with Henson) and Lego—you can’t go wrong! Promising Melbourne theatre company Sticky Apple Legs combine musical theatre, puppetry, comedy, and a sharp script from successful playwright Tom Taylor in the world premiere second show. It’s the first of its kind to deal, through comedy, with the exceptionally rare condition (so rare it escapes research) of City Head—a society living in your brain.

The show started even before the audience was ushered to the show room from the ballroom bar. Puppeteer and actor Troy Larkin slipped into the union-flagged hall with Doc, a sociable, touchy-feely moppet with a dramatic South Park-esque voice. A similar entrance was made into the tiny Evatt Room. He stroked faces, joked on a physical appearances, then reassured, ‘It’s ok…I’m a doctor.’

Sitting face to face with the moppets in such an intimate environment provides a fresh and surreal experience for festival-goers. City Head achieves comedy through each medium utilised during its performance, from the lively dioramas populated with animated Lego characters, to the consistent moppet voices and personalities. It also alludes to our impact on earth and our lack of vision in dealing with problems.

Sticky Apple Legs aims to provide high quality original work on a low budget. They accomplished their mission with effective use of front-row torch lighting effects and the simplicity of the Lego medium. The storyline, although short, is absorbing and entertaining, and the labour poured into the moppets and dioramas is effective. Well worth a nibble."

You can read reviews of Sticky Ballerina Legs at:

Buzzcuts

(Unfortunately, Buzz Cuts no longer operates the 2003 site, so there is no link. If you would like a copy of the page, please email us and we will send it to you)

Andrew Carter wrote -

"Unrequited love between the sun and the moon. Hypnotic cycles of life and death. The seductive tango of cat and fish. Apart from puppetry, few types of live performance could accommodate such a vibrant cocktail of images and themes into one intoxicating sensory experience. Wistful and humourous, Sticky Ballerina Legs exploits the full potential of puppetry, and as the debut of Sticky Apple Legs Production Company, is worthy of very high praise indeed.

"The work incorporates the hand puppetry of Hye Jean Lee, who studied the art for eight years in Korea, and her disciples, Susan Biviano and Naomi Guss. Together the three wrote the show and masterfully animate n eclectic range of people, animals and plants. Even restless household furniture and lonely planetary objects get the opportunity to live out their secret fantasies.

"Completely stripped of dialogue, the show flows in a dream-like way based loosely around nterconnected sub-plots. Scenes and characters drift on a thematic soundscape sampled from music and nature. The absence of a linear structure generally adds to the mystique but can be a little slow at times.

"In addition to hand puppetry, Sticky Ballerina Legs employs various puppetry styles, including black theatre. At one stage the audience actually witness the creation of some origami puppets as a piece of paper takes on various forms. Other non-conventional objects come to life by the most ingenious means. A tree sprouts spring-time fruit in the form of balloons. Once again it seems that limited resources have forced this low-cost production company to be all the more creative.

"In contrast to the stereotype of puppetry as an art form for children, Sticky Ballerina Legs invokes a rather black form of humour that adults will relish. The kids might not like to see Barbie being eaten by a fish or the big bad wolf fairy tale turned on its head.

"Sticky Ballerina Legs is a nice break from wordy and forceful performances which dominate
popular culture. It operates on a more profound, surreal level, catering to the subconscious imagination of the audience and allowing us to muse infinitely on its meanings.

"The three young puppeteers behind Sticky Ballerina Legs have created something very original and refreshing. It’s like animation without the screen."

Stage Left

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Richard Evans said the following -

"A series of vignettes, this show presents scenarios as disparate as a sun with arms trying to touch the moon, and a cat taunting a fish. The puppets are well designed and operated, with the design perfectly matching the content. The performance is suffused with a gentle humour, especially when depicting the fate of the frolicking fish. While a little slow at times, Sticky Ballerina Legs is an entertaining production."

The Age

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Michael Dwyer wrote a piece on the Melbourne Fringe Festival for 2003, and included a mention of our show -

"…The statement [that the Fringe inspires the bizarre] could apply equally to almost any of the 180-odd acts under this year's Fringe Festival umbrella, from high-flying acro-balance act Westside Circus, to the puppetry experience of Sticky Ballerina Legs, to improvisational audience-participation comedy The Bingo Board of Doom."