Cicadas. They live underground for 17 years then emerge,spread their wings, fly around and sing incredibly loudly to find a mate. The cicada of this play is a cute 12cm puppet held in the capable hands of Tim Watts. Tim masterfully manoeuvres the cicada around a desk-sized platform as the creature works at a computer in a dark, dull office. His boss is a card-board cutout of a man, manoeuvred a round the desk by Arielle Gray. Not only are Tim and Arielle puppeteers, they and their team are adaptors, designers, and YES, philosophers with a message the children may not get, but the adults will. The little cicada must work in the dark for ‘the man’, a mean money-driven boss.But for how long must he work? The long row of numbers at the front of the desk flip over, going down slowly from billions, to what? What are the numbers? The cicada chances upon a television nature show about the life cycle of the cicada. He discovers something about 17 years! Has his time come? Will numbers in front of him on the desk ever get down to zero, the end of his time as a larvae? And does he have to sing loudly to emerge from the dark and fly away from the mean man? He desperately tries to sing, but, nope, he’s still in the larvae stage and must wait. And work. And wait some more.
Theatre company Barking Gecko adapted Cicada from the book ‘Cicada’ by Shaun Tan. The book won the Children’s Book Council Award for Best Picture Book. Tim, Arielle and director Like Kerridge humanised the book’s simple story of the cicada. A huge amount of work has been put into the creation of this show. There are mirrors, videos, original music, amazing light effects, delicate props and swirling spotlights. The designer is Tyler Hill; lighting designer is Chloe Ogilvie, composer is Jonathon Jie Hong Yang and the sound designer is Tim Collins. This team have put together a charming 55-minute show suitable for children and adults.
Content Haze effects, flashing lights. Suitable for ages 8+.
55 minutes
Barking Gecko’s production CICADAS is playing Wharf 2, Sydney Theatre Company until 13th October 2024.
http://www.sydneytheatre.com.au/whats-on/productions/2024/cicada
