The Cardinals’ Take On Humanity – Adelaide Festival Review

Flinders St Baptist Church, Wed Mar 11 The Cardinals compresses 2000 years of human history into less than two hours, and tightly focuses this narrative within a puppet stage a few square metres in size. Mostly drawing on significant events of biblical history, beginning with the Garden of Eden, a few post bible events are added to bring us to the present day, and persuasively make the case that the current Muslim versus the West conflict is just one more chapter in a story that is centuries old. A fascinating sideshow to this main tale is the often frantic scurrying of the support crew as they gather the bits and pieces need for the next 30 second vignette in the puppet frame. This all happens in full view of the audience. Occasionally they squabble silently about what comes next, or who should do what – like Greek gods controlling their puppet mortals for their entertainment. Assembling the hundreds of props on cue and in the right order is a staggering feat in itself. In addition each member of the four person cast takes multiple roles as puppet characters in an endless display of rich imagery, and frequent irony. A crucial scene at the end of the Crucifixion is thrown into confusion when the Muslim stage hand retires for prayers! It’s a compelling performance on many levels. A musical soundtrack is tightly woven into each scene and included hymns and examples of plainsong. A live beat box like accompaniment to a Crusade battle was a nice touch, and a ridiculously inappropriate modern number for the fall of Jericho struck a humorous jarring note. The busy-ness backstage seemed almost absurd and slapstick at times, but every prop was available in place and on time every time. As good as it was The Cardinals could be a little shorter. Reducing the history of humanity to a manageable chunk I grant is a challenging task, but some historical events could have been omitted with no loss of impact, and might yield a more satisfying experience overall. Quite a remarkable show nevertheless. Clever, witty and poignant. The Cardinals continues at Flinders St Baptist Church until Sat Mar 14. Book at BASS on 131 241 or bass.net.au. Click HERE to purchase your tickets. Image by Grame Braidwood