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The Bicycle Powered Propaganda Puppet Show

Sunday · Sunday Shows

Stephanie Cairns

When
10:00–10:30am · 30 mins
Ages
11+
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A shadow-puppet screen showing a city skyline with a bridge, buildings and trees, with a performer silhouetted reaching up from below

In a tale as old as the invention of the automobile, an out-of-touch King wants to bulldoze his city in the name of progress. The breakout hit of the last Wellington Puppetry Festival returns, but this time BETTER! Stephanie describes her work as “shameless urbanist propaganda through shadow puppetry”.

Content warnings: Mild offensive language

A shadow-puppet screen showing a city skyline with a bridge, buildings and trees, with a performer silhouetted reaching up beside it
A blue-lit shadow puppet screen showing a city skyline with a bridge and a leaping fish silhouette under a crescent moon

About the artist

Stephanie Cairns is a puppeteer and musician based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. She has performed her puppet shows at CubaDupa, the Wellington Folk Festival, and the Out of the Suitcase puppet festival. She often collaborates with other cool people like Anna Bailey (String Bean Puppets), REACT (Rangiwahia Environmental Arts Centre Trust) and Zoe Higgins. Besides puppetry she writes and performs songs for her band Birdfeeder and is active in Wellington’s Javanese gamelan group.

Creative team

  • Stephanie Cairns (she/her), Puppeteer, creator
  • Josh Harris (he/him), Musician, hype man
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