THEATRE REVIEW: KILL PUPPET BILL
13.09.2022 Basement Theatre
Having seen Puppet Fiction in 2017, I was really excited for this next installment of Tarantino puppet adaptation. I’m a pretty big Tarantino fan, and I don’t mind puppets either, so Jon Coddington’s work always interests me. His first performance, Puppet Fiction, was brought to life with wonderfully crafted, charismatic, 30 cm tall marionettes. It’s obvious that this was a cult-classic idea for a cult-classic film. It’s one of those niche, chaotic, totally fantastic ideas that is so absolutely random that you just can’t say no to it. And it was so good that when I saw Kill Puppet Bill was showing at the Basement Theatre, I jumped to get tickets.
Kill Puppet Bill took a different approach to Puppet Fiction: This time, they used shadow puppets. With the use of multiple projections (and a lot of technical puppetry), Kill Puppet Bill created an illusion of depth and successfully mimicked Tarantino’s cinematography. In (very stark) contrast with the film itself, there was something very sweet and pure about this method of puppetry. It’s been a difficult couple of years, full of doom scrolling, fear and isolation. And it will continue to be a difficult time ahead of us. But there was something so nice about watching this performance and not thinking about the state of the world. It felt like I was a pretentious 14 year old kid again, watching Tarantino films at a sleepover and feeling smarter than anyone else my age. I could forget for a moment. I could feel comfort and nostalgia in this puppet rendition of an 00’s cult classic. Who would have thought?
I did wish there was more though. Although technically impressive, I felt the shadow puppets were not the right medium for this show. It almost felt like a storyboard rather than an adaptation. Furthermore, being greeted at the door by a Muppet, and having a Christopher Walken marionette address the room at the end of the show, I felt primed to expect a return to that style of puppetry.
Also, because of the flatness of the shadow puppet medium, it took away from a lot of the fight scenes, which were reduced to the same swinging sword sounds. Halfway through, I genuinely thought the marionette puppets were going to slash through and provide a different medium for the final fight scene - which would have been great! I would have loved the shadow puppet medium if it was in combination with another puppetry medium. On its own, though, there was something missing. Perhaps it was the loss of iconic lines (“wiggle your big toe” was reduced to stylistic mumbling) or that the very recognizable Kill Bill soundtrack was reduced to a cappella style voice overs. While this style of puppetry championed the cinematography of Kill Bill, I felt it didn’t always champion the other aspects that make Kill Bill special. This isn’t to say I was disappointed. This is to say, I enjoy the Tarantino-puppet adaptations so much I want to see more!
Kill Puppet Bill is absolutely what I expect to see at Fringe: something fun, something chaotic and something I can’t wait to see grow. Fringe is all about giving access to independent artists and bringing things to the stage that wouldn’t traditionally be there. I definitely enjoyed myself at this show and recommend all Tarantino and/or puppet fans attend - a Venn diagram overlap that I never thought would happen.
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You can book your tickets for Kill Puppet Bill here!
Director: Jon Coddington, Hannah Clarke
Cast: Jon Coddington, Bridie Thomson, Emily Hurley
Creative: Jon Coddington
Presented by: Present Company