Falling Through Clouds is the new production from Perth theatre company – The Last Great Hunt. Personally I’d argue that that sentence alone should be enough to make you want to go and watch this work. But then of course you might not know who they are yet. If you don’t Falling Through Clouds will be the perfect introduction to their innovative and always entertaining brand of theatre.
Falling Through Clouds tells the story of Mary (Adriane Daff), a scientist given the task of returning birds from the point of extinction and teaching them how to fly. She has one year to complete the task, because everyone loves an unreasonable timetable right? Mary also has her own dreams, dreams of flight.
Initially devised by Tim Watts, creator of the award-winning productions The Adventure of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer and It’s Dark Outside; Falling Through Clouds is a collaborative and experimental work with all four performers (Adriane Daff, Arielle Gray and Chris Issacs) taking an active role in the show’s creation and development. And like those aforementioned shows, Falling Through Clouds makes fantastic use of puppetry, animation and assorted gadgetry; though this time the puppets are that little bit bigger.
In fact everything is that little bit bigger and ambitious, and that ambition has paid off. The pre-recorded visuals and animation ensure that the audience can’t help but be drawn into the world of Mary and her feathered companions. And speaking of those feathered companions, its impressive the way in which Watts and his fellow performers are able to bring to life these puppets made of paper in a way that makes them seem so real and have the audience connect with them.
Falling Through Clouds is another fantastic production from Watts and his fellow practitioners at The Last Great Hunt. Simply put it’s a delight to watch, a fantastic blend of animation, puppetry and live performance that wonderfully whimsical and entertaining. My advice get in and see Falling Through Clouds now before it heads off around the world, as it’s surely destined to.
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Falling Through Clouds is in performances through 11th October at PICA in Perth. For tickets and more details head here: http://www.pica.org.au/view/Falling+Through+Clouds/1944/
The review attended the performance on 24th September 2014.
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