The Pawpet Show Looks Into the Future
This year's pawpetshow took a few bold and risky steps. The characters whose adventures we have followed for so many years stepped down from the stage.
Fan favourites like Poke and Lori had to make room for a new generation of pawpets in this year's adventure which took the audience to the Pearl of Asia, Hong Kong. Anybody expecting a more traditional plot was surprised with a futuristic cyberpunk thriller, pitting hackers, corporations and the Communist Party of China against each other in a close struggle for political power and control over the cyberspace.
A delightfully screwed-up hacker bunny
The new show saw the rise of a few fascinating new characters like Null, the slightly unhinged underground hacker who eventually held all the power in his quick little bunny paws. Eisfuchs gave Null a wonderfully screwed-up personality and wit that might turn the white rabbit into a new fan favourite if used in the future. Another stunning creature was the enormous Chinese dragon Cai Lung, who was pitted against his own wife, the cunning and malicious white tigress and government mole Jiao Chan, a classical Chinese rivalry. And in between all sides stood poor Cornelius, aka Void, a simple facility manager rat who lost his memory and gained a memory stick with the secret to ultimate control. Though he doesn't know his own name any more he still knows he's in love with the brave and fiery tigress Yun, adoptive daughter of Cai Lung and Jiao Chan.
The plot was eerily contemporary as China struggles with the issues of modern capitalism and communist tradition more and more. The performance itself became more diverse, integrating stage and video cast in a clever way to have more action going on at more than one place. The new puppets which were used are another interesting tidbit that should be mentioned. Compared to their predecessors they are far more advanced and complex in construction, allowing a wide range of physical movement. The humoristic parts of the play had nice timing, fitting with the cyberpunk setting. All in all, this year's pawpetshow was a solid performance that dared to break the tried and true mould.
Author: Curry