By Callum Ludwig
The voices of Warburton residents will be the star of a show coming to the Arts Centre next month.
Hello Red Planet, performed by the Brunswick-based Bunk Puppets, will feature recordings of Warburton residents gathered over the coming weeks and will be on show on Saturday 9 November.
Bunk Puppets Company Director Jeff Achtem said the show is a pitch to the town of Warburton to relocate to Mars.
“We’ve cooked up an idea where we are coming to the town to make a pitch to move the town to Mars, to resettle everything, everybody, and all the key features and locations and all the things that make, in this case, Warburton, the town that it is to Mars,” he said.
“What we’re doing ahead of time is that we’re going to go out into the community and make a bunch of visits in schools and parks and playgrounds, and we’re going to interview people that live in the area and get their thoughts on the local community and things they like, who we should bring, who we should leave behind, and then we’re going to get all these documentary interviews,”
“We’ll edit them and use puppetry to create little videos, and those videos, which are town residents talking about what they think is special about their community, will be played back during the live theatre show as research by these two kooky clowns.”
Bunk Puppets will be conducting their interviews over the next couple of weeks in preparation, including visiting local schools, and will also announce in the near future where anyone interested in having their voice used can come meet them and get involved on their Facebook page ‘Bunk Puppets’. Community groups are also encouraged to reach out if members would like to get involved.
Mr Achtem said they have already brought Hello Red Planet to the towns of Mildura, Horsham, Warragul and Kyneton.
“In each town, we create these bespoke videos that involve all these interviews so it’s quite a process and the show itself doesn’t change, but the videos are special for each town,” he said.
“Everybody’s anonymous in the videos and they all look like Dr. Seuss characters because they’re animated using puppets but it’s fun to get a real range of voices, young and old, new arrivals and old timers,”
“Some themes pop up that are quite similar in towns but I don’t know where Warburton will sit in terms of identity comparing it to Mildura which is a regional centre or Warragul and Kyneton which are closer to the city and have a bit more Melbourne influence.”
Bunk Puppets have performed all over the world from Off-Broadway New York City, Soho Theatre in London and The Chameleon in Berlin as well as repeat visits to Adelaide Fringe Festival, Melbourne Comedy Festival and venues all over regional Victoria and Australia.
Hello Red Planet is a one-hour show with no interval from 6.30pm to 7.30pm and tickets and more information can be found at yarraranges.vic.gov.au/Experience/Events/Hello-Red-Planet.
