Snuff Puppets

Title: Snuff Puppets
Description: These giant puppets made by Andy Freer first made their appearance at the Splinters performance Mutter Courage for the 1990 National Playwrights Conference, at the Union Forecourt of the Australian National University. Basing their production on a loose reading of Bertolt Brecht’s classic, in trademark Splinters style, the group parodied the conventions of realist theatre and the expectations of Australian middle class theatre-going audiences by contrasting these concerns with the fearsome intensity of pre-war Europe. The huge, menacing puppets with human operators within were at once figures of ridicule as well as symbols for archetypal aspects of humanity, putting the audience off guard before dragging them into a chaotic, fiery bacchanal, which became a Splinters trademark.

These original puppets went on the play a major part in Splinters shows in 1991 and 1992, before Freer and fellow puppeteers Pauline Cady and Simon Terrill decided to pursue their ambitions as an independent company in Melbourne. Snuff Puppets has gone on to be one of the most successful companies that derived from the Splinters milieu, winning multiple awards and touring regularly around Australia and internationally.
Date: 1990
Type: 3D objects
Format: Mixed Media
Creator: Andy Freer