Argus By Dead Puppet Society

Adults and children alike are set to be enthralled and entertained with an innovative and highly creative puppet experience when the Queensland Theatre Company presents Argus by Dead Puppet Society, at the Bille Brown Studio, The Greenhouse, 5-17 May. 

If you’re not familiar with the Dead Puppet Society, they create puppet-based visual theatre that combines old-world aesthetics and the charm of puppetry with contemporary, cutting edge technology. The result is a magical world that charms and delights all ages. As well as Australia, they’ve worked in New York and South Africa, collaborating with companies including The Jim Henson Foundation and Handspring Puppet Company. 

Argus has a lead character made up entirely of the performers’ hands, with this lack of fixed form making it very versatile, flexible and free of the constraints of the conventional type of puppet made from materials. Dead Puppet Society says, “We ended up with a character made from the only ingredient that a puppet must have – someone to bring it to life.”

Argus transports the audience into a world of magic and eccentricity and is loosely based around elements of ancient mythologies. The story, set on a giant rotating table top, is about a tiny creature who lives at the bottom of a garden and finds himself going on an unexpected adventure. Using the principle of found objects, ordinary items come alive in unusual ways, such as a table top sprouting grass and water bottles representing the ocean. 

Dead Puppet Society performers are Nathan Booth, Matt Seery, Anna Straker and Laura Hague, with Nicholas Paine the Creative Producer, and David Morton the Director and Designer. Live music is performed by the brilliant Topology with a score by the group’s John Babbage. 

BUY TICKETS HERE

by Vicki Englund