Photo: Ashley de Prazer

What are birthdays for?

This is one of the underlying questions presented in Spare Parts' The Birthday written by the company’s Associate Director Michael Barlow and directed by the Artistic Director Philip Mitchell.

This is Barlow’s third original script for Spare Parts, and Mitchell skillfully directs an aesthetic and an emotional experience for children and their families. One of the most impressive features about this particular production is the noticeable collaboration that has occurred between the director, writer and artists. The puppets are vibrant and impressive motifs that look good enough to eat, constructed and designed by Sanjiva Margio, Cecile Williams and Jiri Zmitko with bright and lush primary coloured costumes by Lyndell Darch. Moreover, the show is accompanied with poignant music by Lee Buddle and others, matching the theatricality perfectly.

Theatre for young children often utilizes animals within its narrative, as Barlow explains:

"The Birthday is told from the point-of-view of a caterpillar, so it has an element of fantasy attached to it. I think this kind of approach is similar to a fairy tale which allows children to respond to the content of the story in a way that’s natural to them."

The Birthday appears simple in its theme and narrative structure but is actually quite complex and intriguing. Barlow comments:

“I was thinking about birthdays and their importance to children, and how they can be an interesting setting for a story, but I didn't necessarily want to take the path of presenting a straightforward party.”

Barlow also created the animation that was interspersed throughout The Birthday. The digital drawings were magically child-like in style, and Mitchell expertly punctuated these scenes within the narrative, composing an awesome emotional presence that juxtaposed the children celebrating their friend’s birthday."The audience watched as a tiny pin-sized Luna formed inside an egg, outgrowing her walls to become a larva. Luna develops and then hatches out from her confinement via Barlow’s animation which was detailed, theatrically inspiring and high-tech puppetry in action. A year later, hanging up-side down, Luna spins her soft silk pad and waits, but this time her skin splits open and she is a pink butterfly. However, before Luna the caterpillar decides what birthdays are for, and renews herself into a butterfly she meets an assortment of large-scale iconic birthday images and asks probing questions.

To the director’s credit, Mitchell has artistically chosen to avoid ‘quick fixes’ such as creating continuous high-energy exchanges throughout the performance; something that can often occur in shows for the very young. The decision to implement pre-show party music was also well orchestrated. Children and adults trundled in, picking out their seats with colourful pillows in hand for better viewing. While everyone waited for the show to start, spectators enthusiastically wiggled in their seats, clapping and singing along to Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I will Survive’ and The Fifth Dimension’s ‘Aquarius/Let the Sunshine in’.

Several issues did however impact my experience when viewing The Birthday, although these weren’t necessarily all negative. There was a brief moment, during the middle section of the show, when I hesitated and thought, “how far can this theme be stretched?” But, it didn’t take long before I was traveling along voluntarily, eventually completing a full circle and understanding the overall story-line.

The puppeteers/performers Michelle Robin Anderson, Oda Aunan and Tim Watts all gave compelling and focused performances, and worked extremely hard to breathe life into their puppets. This was especially so with Robin Anderson’s animating performance regarding the hungry Spider and the hard-core birthday man who enjoyed rapping on top of the birthday cake, yelling, “Eat me - I’m delicious.” Watts' balloon and delicate ribbon performances also provoked plenty of amusement and wonder from the spectators. More often than not, I was mesmerized when the puppeteers became one with their puppets, injecting life and soul into them – as if I were peering through a gigantic magnifying glass. However, there were some instances when this wasn’t quite the case, such as Aunan’s manipulation of Luna towards the end of the show. I briefly wondered if the performers were getting tired; they certainly had their work cut out for them. Additionally, the performers' dance sequence at the end of the production seemed slightly awkward, and further choreography wouldn’t go astray.

Overall, Spare Part’s The Birthday is ambitious and an inspirational exploration of life with all of its disparate struggles (that even a caterpillar can’t avoid). Throughout Barlow’s extensive artistic career with Spare Parts, spanning eighteen years as a performer, director and writer, The Birthday emerges as a show that challenges and provokes the imagination. It is a production that is aesthetically awesome, fun and emotionally stimulating for young and old. With the puppeteers/performers maintaining their energy and enthusiasm as specific directorial and technical fine tuning takes place, this show is defiantly worth seeing.

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