Last night, a full house packed into Perth’s State Theatre Studio Underground for the world premiere of The Last Great Hunt’s Night Night as part of Perth Festival. The Last Great Hunt is known for making highly innovative theatre that blends dramatic acting with puppetry, animation, and mind-boggling technology. Night Night is no different.
Entering the Studio Underground space, each audience member is given a plastic medallion to wear around their neck as they make their way to their seats. During the pre-show, co-creators / performers Arielle Gray and Tim Watts warm up and partially prepare the stage for the show.
On stage, all the elements of the production are more or less laid bare to the audience: two-thirds of the stage is occupied by a large projector screen and the other third has a camera pointed at a smaller projector screen, while some props and furniture are also laid about the place.
At one point, Watts walks across the camera’s field of view and it’s made apparent that the larger projector is displaying what the camera is capturing. All this provokes the audience’s curiosity. What is about to happen here?
Night Night wastes no time answering this question as it launches into an introductory sequence where we meet Pip, an expeditioner in the Arctic who is trying to discover the origins of life. Behind the scenes, co-creator / director Luke Kerridge dutifully runs the projector, changing the backgrounds and foregrounds to alter the setting.
Meanwhile, on stage, Arielle Gray portrays Pip while Tim Watts plays supporting characters, wrangles the puppets, and operates the camera. Through the use of these projector screens, cameras and puppets, they are essentially filming a movie live on stage.
This introductory sequence is bursting with an energy and whimsy reminiscent of Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and the whole thing is equal parts joyful and enthralling. To see Gray sitting on a stool, bobbing up and down with a ring light in her hands on stage, while on the projector, she is driving a car is fascinating. All kinds of incredible tricks like this occur throughout the show that are simply delightful.
The other major character in Night Night is portrayed through Tim Watts’ fantastic puppetry. Best described as a stick-man, it is composed of strands of light, with its head and limbs each connected to the tip of one of Watts’ fingers.
Watts enables the character to bend, reach and glide through the space, sometimes moving beyond the bounds of the camera to interact with the audience. The relationship that builds between this character and Pip becomes the core of the show, and Gray and Watts sell that relationship beautifully, despite a complete absence of dialogue between the two characters.
In the show’s second half, the stakes are raised as Pip receives a fatal diagnosis and is separated from her newfound friend. The show reaches a beautiful crescendo as all the elements and techniques come together with Rachel Claudio’s score to deliver an emotional and very satisfying conclusion. We even finally find out what those medallions are for.
Running just short of an hour, Night Night tells a story that is maybe lacking in complexity but is more than made up for in its incredibly elaborate and effective craft. Just as impressive is that it’s all laid out in front of you from the start. The audience sees exactly how this sausage is made, and yet it is still a wondrous thing to witness as it all comes together.
While Night Night has already sold out its Perth Festival season, it will be touring around the country later this year.
Night Night runs as part of Perth Festival until 2 March at Studio Underground, State Theatre Centre of WA, 174/176 William St, Perth.
Website: https://www.perthfestival.com.au/program/season-2025/night-night
Socials: https://www.instagram.com/tlghtheatre/
Photo credits: images supplied by Perth Festival.
