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Sticks, Stones, Broken Bones Review

MrBunkSlapdash

Sticks, Stones, Broken Bones is a comedic shadow puppet show created and performed by ‘Mr Bunk’ (Jeff Achtem) showing as part of Canberra’s Enlighten Festival.

When I saw ‘Mr Bunk’  I’d dragged along my roommate who started shooting me fierce looks as more and more noisy children joined the queue. I began to wonder whether we were about to spend our Friday night watching the equivalent of Sesame Street live.

We were both pleasantly surprised.

The show was a collection of hilarious sketches involving a creative use of everyday objects and some fairly uncomfortable looking physical positions to create the shadow characters.

Mr Achtem is from Montreal and has been doing shadow puppetry for 5 years. He has performed his 3 shows all over the world.

“I really enjoy creating something a bit different to entertain people,” says Mr Achtem.

Normally shadow puppets are positioned behind the screen with cut outs and sticks, whereas Mr Achtem performs in front of a screen, which he says creates better movement and allows the pieces to be more character-driven.

Audience interaction was also a highlight. A nervous father was coaxed from the front row to fight a shadow puppet sensei, reminding us that, as Mr Bunk said “No matter how big you get, there’s always time to play.”

This show was fantastically funny and, as we discovered, will be enjoyed by people young and old.

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