fringe: the package

adelaide fringe: the package
An old woman in a nursing home receives a mysterious package and starts to reminisce about her life.

The Package starts out with a simple enough premise, and adds layers of puppetry, masks, animation and music.

I will say though, that I don't think this is a show suited for kids under about 14, even though this show is classified as "family friendly". Partly because I'm not sure how many of them will get it and if it will hold their attention, but also due to some oversized fake body parts during a comedy nudity scene.

The puppetry itself is often quite beautiful, especially the bird and the full sized woman, but there was just something about their faces that was a little too "creepy doll" (especially the child) for me to really get engaged in them.

The same goes for the old woman character, played by Katelnd Griffin... her mask was kind of off-putting... especially as there were often times you couldn't see the human eyes underneath it. I got the point of it, to give a cohesive look to the characters, but I still found that it distanced me more than it drew me in.

Griffin did do a fantastic job as the old lady though. Her movements felt authentic, and she did a great job for the most part of conveying emotion without using her face.

The other two performers, Kristy Schubert and Robbie Hoad, fill in the rest of the roles around her as well as performing the puppetry and they're both excellent.

The live three piece band manages to be unobtrusive to the story, but as has been the case with previous shows, I did wonder if their roles would be better served by prerecorded music to give the whole stage off to the performance (but again, that's possibly more about me than them).

While I enjoyed the story, I wouldn't say that it'll be one that stays with me (comedy genitals notwithstanding).

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