In February, Dead Puppet Society is presenting 'The Wider Earth' at Brisbane’s Princess Theatre.
It’s an award-winning show telling the story of young Charles Darwin through puppetry. Written, directed, and co-designed by David Morton, it’s a show that’s been with the organisation for a while – since 2014. “The process of creating it for us has been long,” David says.
Charles Darwin is a name known globally in any language; David’s draw to him is a two-fold situation. “The poetic answer is, we were in South Africa years ago and it came up at dinner one night that Darwin had come through Cape Town during his voyage on The Beagle – when he was there, he was in his mid-20s.
“I knew enough from high school biology that the voyage was five or six years long, so if he was in his mid-20s in the last few months of the voyage, he must have been a baby when he left England!
“I think of Charles Darwin, and I think of this wizard-old sage with a grey beard, and it was this real moment for us of going ‘There’s a young person behind the great discoveries!’
“We did some diving and started realising he’s an adventurer, he’s a hero in terms of what he threw away to go on this voyage. We felt like that was a story that really needed telling.”
Image © Guy Bell
For most of us, when we’re in our late teens and early 20s, it’s our years of recklessness and finding ourselves. ‘The Wider Earth’ showcases the Victorian version of that. “Darwin was totally rebellious,” David enthuses. “He blew up a back shed on his father’s property because he was doing chemistry experiments. He used to run away from school to go walking in the woods.
“Where the tension in this decision of his to go on The Beagle really came from, is, he finished a degree and his dad desperately wanted him to become a priest – at the same time, he got an offer from a professor, John Henslow, saying ‘I just got asked to go on a voyage but I can’t go, I want you to go in my place.’ His dad was furious, but we all know where it lent.”
David’s fanatic tellings of Darwin isn’t a bad thing because it’s culminated in this piece. “In his lifetime, so much of what he was looking for in the natural world was around trying to combine the poetries of religions and science to breed a holistic sense of the world. That’s what we try and lean into in the piece, and I think it strikes the balance beautifully.”
Image © Prudence Upton
The disparity and clash of ideas between naturalism, evolution and religion provides the framework for the narrative that is covered in the production. “The piece is set strictly in the lead up to the voyage on The Beagle and then a number of points on that journey,” explains David. “Largely the play is about what does it mean for this young person to have seen things which mean they think the world doesn’t operate in the way that they’ve been taught, and what does it mean to speak up about that.
“There are definitely themes of conflict between these world views but ultimately it’s centred in these experiences of these characters, but particularly this young person.”
Dead Puppet Society’s productions are traditionally delivered through a variety of mediums, such as puppetry, lighting, even technology. “We’re really excited,” says David, “there’s a large expansive open stage space that’s full of lighting effects beneath the floor, then there are these almost architectural objects which are wheeled around by the cast to create various landscapes and rooms.
Image © Guy Bell
“Wrapped around the entire set is this amazing panoramic projection screen that features animations by our visual designer, Justin Harrison, and the style that he’s used is based on the sketches that Darwin took while he was on The Beagle.
“And of course, we’re using almost 50 puppet creatures. From tiny butterflies all the way up to giant prehistoric fossils.”
Dead Puppet Society have always, in their productions – and with ‘The Wider Earth’ – operated outside of the box but maintained an element of comfort for more traditional theatre goers.
“Our conversations are always about how we make a production a reinvention of form and to make sure the way we’re telling it perfectly suits the story, but at the same time, making sure the most important exchange that happens for us is that those stories reach a broad audience, and that an audience feels they’re going to be looked after, taken on a wild ride, ultimately see something that’s not so different they don’t feel welcome to it.”
'The Wider Earth' is on at The Princess Theatre (Brisbane) 5-19 February. It also stops at Redland Performing Arts Centre just outside Brisbane on 24 March.
