From underneath the half-opened roller door, a strange green glow reaches across the street pavement. Melancholy music befitting a long ago circus wafts into the graffiti-laden dead end street where a crowd wait impatiently. At last, they’re invited to duck into the abandoned quilt factory and find their seats, ready for A Grim Era, the debut production from Melbourne’s fledgling puppet company Smallpox Theatre.
Set within a junkyard theatre, A Grim Era is the story of Is and Isn’t, two vagabond clowns played by Gemma Lark and David “Splatt” Rosenblatt, who fall in love only to discover their affection waivers with time, leaving behind a dysfunctional coexistence built on tragedy.
A Grim Era is an experimental, hybrid puppetry production with absolutely no dialogue, which leads to many opportunities for inventive expression. Puppetry, props, music, set design and lighting are all used flawlessly to create the vibrant world in which the drama unfolds. The attention to detail and imagination shown in the construction and design of the set, props and puppets is especially impressive with every aspect serving a meaningful role in the context of the greater story.
Despite the heavy subject matter broached in A Grim Era, the show is not without its lighter moments. The clowns’ courtship is especially sweet and offers moments of genuine humour. Well-timed physical comedy and puppet mastery from both actors prompts many laughs, which makes it all the more heart-breaking when the tone of the performance eventually shifts. One moment, you’re laughing at a rubber chicken, and the next, struggling to hold back tears. These moments of high emotion work so well because they are given time to be fully felt by the audience. Action slows down so that we can appreciate the emotion playing out on stage; emotion so raw and powerful that its prolonged acknowledgement can become almost too much to bear.
A Grim Era is certainly as its name suggests, but in the most beautiful way. While it can become easy to dislike a piece of art for pulling your heart out, crushing it into one thousand pieces and then stomping all over it, this performance is too creative, too thoughtful and too wonderful to incite resentment. While it is a shame that the light-hearted whimsy the clowns begin with does not extend to the performance’s end, Smallpox Theatre are to be commended for their brave decision to stay true to the gravity and reality of the situation. A definite must-see this Fringe Festival, A Grim Era is an example of the very best kind of story-telling – that which makes you feel.
A Grim Era runs until 13 October at the Abandoned Quilt Factory. Tickets are $18 full-price or $15 concession (Tuesday sessions are $13).
