Performance making and puppetry combine for a magical theatrical event! For two shows only, Spare Parts Puppet Theatre and WAAPA’s graduating Performing Arts students join to present The Last Ship Left, an original puppetry performance at the WA Maritime Museum.
“We are inviting the audience to take their seat as passengers on the Last Ship, joining a motley group of survivors facing a new reality,” says Spare Parts Puppet Theatre’s Associate Director Michael Barlow. “Puppets, song and image will collide in a journey unlike any other.”
This journey follows the adventures of the last group of people on Earth. After failing to make the jump to humanity’s new home in the stars, they are shipwrecked on the shores of our abandoned world. Left to their own devices, they set about arguing their cases for a new social order. The dead weigh in, as the ghosts of the past show up to make their case for tradition in a cultural death match.
Directed by Barlow, devised and performed by WAAPA’s 3rd Year Performance Making students, The Last Ship Left will be performed at the WA Maritime Museum for two shows only on Thursday 27 and Friday 28 October at 7.00pm.
Barlow says that developing The Last Ship Left amidst the ships and artefacts of the Maritime Museum has created extra resonance for the piece as “the museum itself is a vessel for stories of ending and beginning, reinvention and carriage of culture”.
The Last Ship Left marks the eighth annual collaboration between Australia’s flagship puppetry company and WAAPA’s Performance Making students. This exciting partnership introduces WAAPA’s students to the world of visual storytelling through the physical and imaginative demands of puppet theatre.
“Each year I look forward to working with the BPA artists as they bring passion and precision to creative work. It’s inspiring to work with them as they complete their time at WAAPA and set sail into the industry,” says Barlow.
For now, you are invited to experience the extraordinary creativity of the 3rd Year Performance Making students and Spare Parts Puppet Theatre as they build the last ship left – part dream, part Bildungsroman, all mayhem.
