Roald Dahl’s The Twits // Child Magazines
Review by Narelle Towie
The puppet faces of the horrendously dumb Mr and Mrs Twit may be ugly, but their tale is delightfully told in Spare Parts Puppet Theatre’s latest production.
There’s something quite special about the Fremantle-based puppet theatre. It’s not just the simplicity of the space, but also the cleverness of bringing to life a show with deliberately low-tech props. Taken straight from the 1980’s Roald Dahl story, this production doesn’t deviate from the lines of the book. A cast of two ingeniously brings the four main characters to life with pipes, whistles and plastic tubing. In such a quaint space, show stars Geordie Crawley and Jessica Harlond-Kenny bring the audience into the show, and the pair shift effortlessly between narrator and character with the help of their masks.
For those not familiar with the book, The Twits is about a couple who are as horrible to children and animals as they are to each other. While not playing tricks on one another, the evil pair capture birds to make into pie by painting their dead tree with glue. But the Twits’ culinary schemes are thwarted when Roly Poly bird pairs up with Muggle-Wump – a monkey forced to stand on its head while trapped in a cage – to stop the carnage.
The show is full of humour and bold movements that captivated my kids. The Q & A afterwards was a nice way to make the audience feel special and privy to the puppeteer’s trade secrets.
The Twits runs until the end of January and is definitely worth seeing. Read the review online