The Making of Magic

I was invited to participate in an exhibition as part of this year's Fringe Festival - the brief was a plywood cuban cigar box and the theme of "carnival".
Of course, I found this a pretty exciting premise, and ideas flew aplenty... then the narrowing down began as I started to work out the actual logistics and the likelihood of my persevering with certain avenues (see About Me... tendencies to leave things unfinished!).
Well, in the end it came together, after a few morphs. Here's a visual diary of the progress and end result of what became "Marlowe's Bush-Bashing Theatre and Trav'lling Playhouse".

The first idea: a carnival truck carrying some kind of theatre or stage, remiscent of ABC's great show Carnivale. Alas, the truck body looked a bit tricky for me to pull together plausibly in two weeks.



Next, the scaled-down concept: a mobile-theatre, but on a hand-held barrow or cart...


This idea seemed to hold true, so I pushed on with the making. Jumbo ice-cream sticks from the craft shop make great small-scale planks. Yes, the love of miniatures has come to the fore again.


So far, so good. Everything is going according to plan. No need for tanties!


And now for the star of the show... Marlowe! Pull yourself together dude! (Hyuk hyuk hyuk!)







And here he is, in all his theatrical and slightly sinister glory.
Hopefully he will make the grade and go into the show, Picturesque, to be seen at the North Melbourne Town Hall from October 1-14. If not, there is pride of place waiting for him at home, just left of the Tiki lamp and below the Transformers breakfast tray!