BWW Reviews: ADELAIDE FESTIVAL 2015: NUFONIA MUST FALL Is A Very Different Love Story

Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Wednesday 4th March 2015

Montreal DJ, Kid Koala's, Nufonia Must Fall is an exquisite little piece and, at the same time, a very big work. What we see is a world in miniature, inhabited by puppets about a hand-length tall, where all is white. How we see it, and what we hear, involves a team of people working very closely together. The absolutely wonderful Afiara Quartet, Valerie Li, first violin, Timothy Kantor, second violin, Eric Wong, viola, and Adrian Fung, 'cello, are kept busy throughout, playing the overture and a widely varied range of incidental music, whilst the multi-talented Eric San (Kid Koala) adds keyboards, voices, ukulele, and turntables, as both music and as sound effects. Added to this is a group of puppeteers, a camera operator, and the technical crew, who are flat out from start to finish.

Close-up work with the video cameras, projected onto a large screen, takes us inside the numerous tiny sets in which the puppets perform. It is something like a modern version of the 1920s entertainment, watching a black and white silent film, with a pianist, organist, or band providing music to match each scene. Here we meet the two main characters, a robot receptionist, who seems rather flustered trying to keep up with all of the angry incoming calls, and a young woman, Malorie, an engineer at the top of her field. They travel together in the lift at the end of the day's work and he tries not to let her notice him looking at her.

The robot has fallen in love with Malorie, but is shy and does not know how to tell her, and he has no idea if she has any interest in him. Does this sound familiar? Humans find that they are sometimes made redundant and replaced by younger workers and, for robots, the same applies but, with them, they become obsolete and are replaced with upgraded models. He suddenly finds himself unemployed the series of circumstances that follow bring them into contact again and provide him with a chance to show her his feelings. For the rest of the story, you will need tickets.

There are laughs aplenty, poignant moments, romance, gentleness, sadness, distress, happiness, and a surprising degree of emotional communication between these two simple puppets, and between them and us. It is remarkable what can be done with a handful of puppets and a dozen sets, and how amazingly captivating it can be for an audience. There is something for everybody in this production, and so many intricate elements, each of which is tightly integrated into the marvellous whole.

Wonderfully directed by K.K. Barrett, it is an adaptation Kid Koala's 2003 graphic novel of the same name, which included a ten track CD of his original compositions to play as background music while reading the book. In this performance there is a cinema showing a film called Space Cadet, an inclusion especially for those who know his work, as it is a reference to another of his graphic novels, written in 2011, which includes a fifteen track CD. There was also a performance developed from this, the Space Cadet Headphone Experience and our little robot wears radio headphones, another crafty reference to his own work.. Perhaps we will have the pleasure of seeing the 'live' version of Space Cadet as well, at some future date.

It takes a large team to create a film live, onstage and, as well as Kid Koala and K. K. Barrett, this includes: set designer, Benjamin Gerlis, puppet designers and puppeteers, Clea Minaker, Patrick Martel, Félix Boisvert and Karina Bleau, director of photography and cameraman, Aj Korkidakis, musical director, string arrangements, and sound engineer, Vid Cousins, stage manager, Olivier Gaudet-Savard, video editor, Ben Knight, producer, Ryhna Thompson, and tour manager, Patrick Hamou Production.

This production is advertised as suitable for ages eight and above, but there is no upper limit. This is a family show in all respects, with as much to intrigue and engage adults as there is for the younger audience members, and there were plenty of them, all of whom hardly made a sound until the overwhelming final applause and standing ovation. Don't miss this, whether you have kids or not.

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