Perth Fringe Festival 2015 Review: Tarantino’s Pulp Gets Juiced in Puppet Fiction

Love the profane, pop culture-citing dialogue of Quentin Tarantino, but prefer it performed by puppets? Like Pulp Fiction well enough, but can’t get over its unforgivable absence of marionettes?

Kiwi comedy team Present Company have heard your insane, unreasonable requests, and brought to Australian shores Puppet Fiction, their hugely detailed yet freewheeling re-enactment of Tarantino’s 1994 landmark.

Playing at the 2015 Perth Fringe Festival, Puppet Fiction sees Jon Coddington, James Nokise and Anya Tate-Manning give life to intricately-crafted dummies representing all your favourite Pulp characters: Vincent Vega. Jules Winfield. Mia Wallace. Even the Gimp comes out of the woodwork.

Directed by Hannah Clarke and co-conceived by Coddington (also responsible for fashioning the puppets), the show speeds through the flick’s three chapters while still allowing its cast time to make the standard local references, poke fun at Travolta’s pre- and post-Fiction career, and even mock their fellow string-pullers. The absurd premise of the production is actually an ingenious way of increasing our appreciation for Tarantino and Roger Avary’s Oscar-winning screenplay. Untethered from its cinematic casing, all that dialogue we’ve learned by rote suddenly feels new again; the comedy, no longer drenched in blood, more apparent.

That’s not to say Puppet Fiction isn’t also a visual treat. From the bandage on the back of puppet Marcellus Wallace’s head to the gold watch secured – rather uncomfortably, fans of the flick will recall – by puppet Captain Koons, many of the essential props of the movie have been meticulously recreated by Present Company.

However, some of the groan-worthy gags included by the performers – perhaps misguidedly sensing a lull in the script - don’t hold up quite as well against the same scrutiny. (Yes, this production definitely comes “with cheese.”) Far more fun are the impersonations of actors John Travolta, Bruce Willis, Christopher Walken and Samuel L. Jackson, which are, cheerfully, way broader than their meticulous avatars.

Though you can catch “The Whole M’F****n Thing” over three hours, I recommend taking each part in bite-sized pieces over a few nights. (Puppet Fiction & Fringe, helpfully, allow for both serving suggestions.) You’re better off stretching out the suspense of seeing how exactly Coddington and company recreate the showdown between Butch and that aforementioned gimp.

3.5/5

Puppet Fiction plays the 2015 Perth Fringe Festival until February 15, 2015.