Smalls

Flyer, 1986

SMALLS was a series of five vignettes originally developed and performed by Michele Spooner and Peter J.Wilson. The work was devised to explore object animation and manipulation and the relationship between puppeteer and puppet. Each act was an independent cameo: a surreal and emotional, animated scene presented in images. Scenes used puppetry, mask and black theatre techniques and tightly choreographed movement to create poignant observations on the human spirit.

SMALLS followed the image-focused performance style of Handspan's work with Nigel Triffitt's, Secrets (1982), but was presented in short unrelated sequences rather than a full-length cohesive play. It was the first major company production to focus on puppetry technique and execution itself rather than using puppets and objects to deliver a dramatised concept.

Pure puppetry

SMALLS was performed in black theatre lighting which isolated its all-white images and visible operators to make animated pictures in an open space. The work was made for adult audiences and featured puppetry techniques discovered and explored by Peter and Michele during an extended masterclass workshop program in Puppetry Manipulation.

Its original vignettes were:

Positive Equals

Photograph: © Ponch Hawkes 1986

Click photos to enlarge

• Smalls: A whimsical sequence which titled the show in visual jokes and puns, as the two performers hung their washing on two clothes lines, one a miniature version of the other.

• Extensions/Restrictions: A solo choreographed dance movement animating a simple yet striking costume of four bamboo poles strapped to the performer's limbs, representing imprisonment and suffering.

• Positive Equals: White clad performers gently brought a puppet baby to life encouraging it from a womb-like box to take its first steps of discovery, celebrating optimism, tenderness and nurture.

• Metamorphosis: An abstract puppet, operated in a curtain of light struggled and transformed in an evolutionary journey from amoeba to man.

• Heads Hands Who’s Who: The most complex of the pieces merged the puppet and the puppeteer in illusions that portrayed a nightmarish loss of identity.

Focused manipulation

In August/September 1985, Michele and Peter enrolled in a 9-week Masterclass program in puppetry manipulation at the Institut International de la Marionette in Charleville-Mézières, France led by Philippe Genty. SMALLS initial segments were conceptualised and developed at the Handspan studio in Fitzroy as a stimulus project for the class. Meanwhile, the rest of the company researched and rehearsed a new Mainstage play, The Haunted for the forthcoming Melbourne Next Wave Festival.

Much of SMALLS imagery grew out of Handspan's previous works. It was stylistically influenced by Secrets. Positive Equals used the white, featureless Baby designed by Ken Evans and made by Michelle Spooner for Cho Cho San. The Baby became an iconic image in other Handspan works from this time, appearing frequently in subsequent events and workshops throughout the following decade and the inspiration for the popular television character, EC (Every Child) from Lift Off (ABC TV: 1992 - 1995). Extensions/Restrictions referenced Peter's recent puppetry direction of the spinIfex sequences in The Haunted.

Peter and Michelle's workshop program experience developed and honed the work concentrating on disciplined manipulation and gestural performance technique. Segments of SMALLS premiered to audiences of puppetry peers at the 7th International Puppet Festival also hosted by the Charleville-Mézières Institut, where it was noted in the international puppetry journal as:

Heads, Hands, Who's Who (Detail)

Photograph: © Ponch Hawkes 1986

Through this masterclass training program, Genty and his philosophies became a major influence in Peter and Michele's work and its directions. Peter sought opportunities outside Handspan to work with puppetry practitioners across Australia to develop new manipulation techniques and his skills in their direction. His Head's Hands, Who's Who piece in SMALLS in particular anticipated his later work, created at Skylark Theatre in Canberra, Wake Baby.

Michele created new vignette works with the company for the next decade including Moments and Women Alone which extended the performance and ensemble skills of company members as well as Handspan's repertoire.

Success and longevity

After its opening in France, SMALLS was further developed with other Handspan artists to include five acts accompanied by a live musician and performed by three puppeteers. The show's optimal performance locations were well-equipped theatres but its flexibility made it tourable to school and community locations as well. In various act combinations. SMALLS remained in the company's repertoire for 8 years, touring in Australia and in Asia, the first Handspan work to visit the continent.

At the 1986 Adelaide Fringe Festival, SMALLS was awarded a Five Star rating - the colourful critic, Peter Goers claimed that:

In Melbourne at Anthill Theatre in Napier St. South Melbourne, the season sold out despite despite uneven reviews:

After its initial seasons in Australia in 1986, SMALLS amalgamated Michele's new vignettes Moments into its program and it became a 2-hour performance with interval. Segments from Women Alone were added in the 1990s for SMALLS tours to China and Japan.

The creation of SMALLS signaled a new era for Handspan. Its development loosened the bonds of the early Handspan membership and the company's united artistic collaboration. At the same time it opened pathways for new members and opportunities for new ideas to take shape. It seasons and tours broadened Handspan's audiences and reached both the company's mainstream and young people's theatre marketplace. It was advantaged by Handspan's reputation and its resonance with the company's recent successful productions Secrets and Cho Cho San, and itself confirmed the company's commitment to pushing the boundaries of the puppetry artform.