Terrapin takes our art to Asia

TERRAPIN Puppet Theatre is building on its 20-plus year history of taking Tasmanian arts to the world, with Asian audiences next to experience the acclaimed Hobart company’s work.

Terrapin will tour its show You and Me and the Space Between to Shanghai and Beijing for six weeks during May and June; before heading to Japan’s Aichi Prefecture for four weeks in August and September as part of the Department of Foreign Affairs’ Australia Now program.

The company also hopes to book a US tour of the show for next year.

Tasmanian illustrator Rachel Tribout has been recruited to join puppeteer Felicity Horsley, musician Dean Stevenson and production manager Andrew MacDonald in the cast and crew.

While in China the team will also work with a local Chinese translator, who will narrate the work in Mandarin.

“Tasmania has the potential to be a great exporter of cultural products, as well as an importer,” Terrapin artistic director Sam Routledge said.

“We’re really good at attracting people here for our festivals — which are amazing — but stuff is being produced here which is really high quality and has a huge international market.”

Told through the eyes of a child, You and Me and the Space Between uses puppetry, projections, live drawing, narration and music to explore the plight of refugees fleeing environmental change.

Terrapin’s next local production is The Riddle of Washpool Gully, which opens at Hobart’s Theatre Royal on April 13.