PERFORMANCE: BILLY TWINKLE, REQUIEM FOR A GOLDEN BOY

Let me introduce Billy Twinkle, golden boy. A cruise-ship puppeteer who’s, “lost his sparkle”.  But it wasn’t always so. Starting out at a truck-shop, his incarnations have included the lush Biddy Bantum, snotty Benjy and not-so-demure stripper, Rusty Knockers. His mentor abandoned him, to go die of all things, and he’s angry. “Billy’s not unlike Ebenezer Scrooge … definitely in need of a transformative evening,” laughs his creator, world-renowned puppeteer Ronnie Burkett. When asked whether it’s autobiographical, Burkett admits, “There are bits and pieces I’ve stolen from my life.” They are both middle-aged puppeteers after all. “I didn’t really want it to be ‘my middle aged, one man show,’” argues Burkett, “I had to come up with a universal discussion. I realised everyone is in the middle of something … in the middle of their studies, in the middle of a divorce.” Burkett, known for his ‘seams and all’ aesthetic, not only will be visible on stage for the entire story, he also wrote the piece, crafted the puppets, and brings them to life with voice and movement. So really, perhaps I should’ve introduced Ronnie Burkett instead, once called the, “bad-boy of puppetry.” It took a piece on the Czech war resistance puppeteers (or ‘daisies’, because they flower in the dark) to shift Burkett from pure funnies and filth to subtle yet salient social critique. “If I can risk breaking my own heart then I’ve let some of my own ego go – you can speak directly to your audience, a discussion in the dark with a bunch of strangers.” Why puppets? Burkett says he had considered Billy Twinkle as a non-puppet piece, but eventually changed his mind. “I am a puppeteer by choice, not by accident. If I do my job well … the audience put their own desires and frame of reference upon this tiny vessel.” Tiny vessels, yes. But taking on life, death, and that crisis, it’s a huge production swelling with poetry. Nice to meet you, Billy. Or should we say, Ronnie.

Oct 1-16, Playhouse, Sydney Opera House, $39-49, 9250 7777 or sydneyoperahouse.com