The Paper Escaper

Tasmania’s Terrapin Puppet Theatre makes theatre quite unlike any other company.

ABOUT THE SHOW

Benny, the plucky puppet protagonist in The Paper Escaper, knows they are destined for greater things than a simple pop-up book. But in a world that’s trying to squash Benny between its pages – from a wily dancing fire to a disillusioned illustrator – Benny will need the help of a new friend to achieve their dreams.

Written by Gita Bezard of The Last Great Hunt, this delightful, funny and inspiring production features inventive puppetry, deft physical performance and an intricate and engaging soundtrack. 

Benny doesn't want to tell the story 'The Maker' has written for them. As their parents get nervous about the consequences of defying the 'The Maker', Benny rips themself from his story. Alone and in an unknown land, Benny comes across a mysterious tentacle and friendship blooms. But 'The Maker' is determined and his fire is hungry – and Benny and their friend must work together to survive.

From its island home in Tasmania, Terrapin creates worlds of creative adventure. They engage the best people from a wide range of artistic backgrounds and practices in performance, design, construction, music composition and systems design. 

They present to diverse audiences far and wide; from Hobart’s Dark Mofo to The Lincoln Centre in New York, the Taipei Children’s Art Festival to the Sydney Opera House and from the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-Upon-Avon to Flinders Island in the Bass Strait.

This bright new puppetry work from Terrapin tells a story of determination, friendship and the power of following your own path.

MORE ABOUT THE SHOW

Terrapin visited over 100 Tasmanian primary schools with The Paper Escaper in 2022, bringing its immersive world and vibrant characters to audiences from kinder to grade 6.

Written by Gita Bezard of The Last Great Hunt, this delightful, funny and inspiring production features inventive puppetry (including a giant multicoloured octopus), deft physical performance and an intricate and engaging soundtrack. It is 45 minutes in length, has a touring party of 4 and can have the first show after a 4 hour bump in.

The narrative follows Benny who doesn't want to tell the story 'The Maker' has written for them. As their parents get nervous about the consequences of defying the 'The Maker', Benny rips themself from the pop-up book, leaving their foot behind. Alone and in an unknown land, Benny comes across a mysterious tentacle and friendship blooms. But 'The Maker' is determined and his fire is hungry, and Benny and their friend must work together to survive. 

As this production was made for in-school touring, it has existing education resources including hands-on making and behind-the-scenes videos. Here's an example of one such educational resource.

GREENER TOUR DELIVERY

Terrapin and Arts on Tour have embedded Green Touring practice at the core of this tour. It will be produced as a ‘High Impact, Low Emission’ tour, with self-driving at all times, i.e. where possible no flights required, with the touring company self-driving the freight.

In addition to this, a Week-Long Residency Buy was offered, allowing the touring party to spend a week in communities to deliver performances of The Paper Escaper and a range of engagement activities. More details regarding this Residency Buy can be found below.

WEEK-LONG RESIDENCY BUY

To foster deeper engagement with communities, Terrapin have included a Week-Long Buy for this tour which will see the company visit communities for up to 5 days of activities. This sees presenters who have taken up this option working with Terrapin to develop a bespoke schedule for their communities with a combination of both performances of the show, as well as a range of engagement activities.

KEY POINTS

• The Paper Escaper is a visually appealing production with a universal takeaway of finding the confidence to write your own story, no matter the story of others. It has no words and is told entirely through images, action and music, meaning it the story is not reliant upon language, appealing to young audiences and audiences whose first language may not be English.
• This is a highly sophisticated new Australian work with popular appeal, significant marketing collateral including video education resources, creative team interviews and promotional video clips. It has beautiful and compelling design elements, constructed sustainably for touring through having already undertaken a Tasmanian schools tour for 4 months. It is a show with a very high production value yet a small touring footprint that can open after a four-hour bump in.
• Made in 2022, this work incorporates many new expectations of audiences post-pandemic. For example, the visual storytelling means The Paper Escaper works very well as a relaxed performance, in that interruptions of noise or movement do not disrupt the audience experience - indeed, they can enhance it. This worked very effectively in schools where children talked to each other about the performance, and will work similarly well with families with young children under 4. Its broad age appeal also provides rich opportunities for shared family experiences across generations.

Once again, it was a brilliant Terrapin performance. I (and the kids) never tire of the shows Terrapin puts on.

Photo credit:  Darcie Richards