Arts Festival Review: Titeres Porno, Spiegeltent

Titeres Porno puppets, Auckland Art Festival. Photo / Supplied

The Spanish title sounds exotic and vaguely poetic but the prosaic English translation - Porno Puppets - probably gives a more accurate description of the show.

The puppetry is amazingly skilful and the wildly energetic puppets capture the bawdy exuberance of a traditional carnival side-show. With up to four puppeteers manipulating different limbs the superbly co-ordinated animation has the puppet figurines dancing, grinding and shaking in perfect time to the pulsating rhythms of Columbian dance music.

By contrast the storylines have the no-frills economy of the kind of pornography which views narrative structure as a superfluous impediment to the core business of depicting sexual activity.

The sexual acts cover an enormous variety of sexual preferences and are as explicit as is possible with doll size figurines that are endowed with comically exaggerated genitalia.

But as the case with real pornography the endless demand for novelty merely accentuates the repetitive nature of the whole enterprise and I found myself wondering why so much artistic ingenuity was put in the service of such a limited purpose.

There were moments when the show offered hints of a more expansive kind of storytelling. An interaction between a house-servant and her mistress introduced the carnivalesque device of inverting status roles but the potentially revealing social commentary was almost entirely subsumed by a detailed instruction manual on various methods of erotic seduction.

In a similar vein a number of the skits engaged in gentle satire on the boastful excesses of Latin machismo but the comprehensive depiction of various sexual acts left little room for any real engagement with the subtleties of sexual politics.

While the show may be lacking in terms of thematic complexity it certainly delivers a high energy dose comical erotic entertainment and the x-rated vibe is ideally suited to the cabaret ambience of the Spiegeltent.

But in a world saturated with pornography in all manner of digital formats it somehow seems unnecessary for puppets to be demanding a share of the action.

PUPPETRY

What: Titeres Porno

Where: Spiegeltent, Aotea Square until 19 March