Puppetry of the Penis at Sky City Theatre

By GREG DIXON

It is generally considered poor form to keep your socks on during sex. We'll never know whether the boys from Puppetry of the Penis make that particular mistake. There is, after all, no sex in their hour-long show.

Indeed, if you're of a sensitive disposition, their demonstration of what they bill as "the ancient art of genital origami" could put you off sex - or for that matter KFC or kangaroos - for life.

But Richard Sutherland and Brett Hartin do keep their socks (and shoes) on while standing butt naked and stretching and folding their gear into the shapes of all manner of animals, food and landmarks for the discernment of their paying audience.

It is startling stuff. Alarming even. But this is good-natured fun which either has you shouting "aaaaghhhh, that just ain't right" or hooting like a mad fool.

The Aussie pair treat the stage like a vast playroom, capering about with a well-honed (possibly too well-honed) patter as they work through around 50 genital "installations" such as The Eiffel Tower, The Loch Ness Monster, John Howard (yes, that John Howard) and The Hamburger.

Each and every one is shown via closed-circuit TV on an enormous screen above the stage.

It is hard to measure whether they are better or worse than anyone else at this sort of thing. Despite what they claim, civilisation has not seen anything quite like it.

Some installations, it should be said, take a little imagination to work out. Others look worryingly similar to the real thing. A few made me blush.

"It's not very flattering is it folks?" said Hartin at one point. He's not wrong. But you find yourself cackling despite it.

Local comedian Jan Maree, who does a 20-minute stint before the boys, has, you might say, a hard act to front. But if there's no sex from the puppeteers, Maree's one-track mind gives the show more than it needs.

All in all, an exhibition of the utterly ridiculous.