Ah, agit-prop, the stroppy little sister of legit theatre, born, so they say, of the political upheavals of 1968, though no doubt angry folk have been using street theatre to get their point across since time immemorial. 

One particular bunch of angry folk, Oil Free Otago, was denied permission to put their views across with a float in Dunedin’s last Big Parade.  It has bravely bounced back with this deceptively cute and non-threatening Fringe offering, featuring two of our most iconic birds.

Like most street theatre, it’s all very casual with a decidedly improvised quality, as a group of penguins (oh all right, actors in penguin suits) ride bicycles round the Octagon, encouraging a few stray kids to help them hunt for their missing friends who turn out to be toy penguins hidden under cones on the big chess board. 

It is officially school-time – I suspect these youngsters are from a visiting cruise ship – but the hunt engrosses them and lures their parents to the acting area, fortuitously positioned in front of an attractive mural of rare yellow-eyed penguins.

Presumably because they are adorably goofy-looking, waddling along in their tuxedos, the penguins are the innocents, clowning around unaware of the signs proclaiming ‘Seismic Testing’, even though a smarter albatross (fair enough, from up there they can see farther) is circling them, screaming, “Warning!” 

Tiny children dressed as baby penguins toddle up, eliciting coos from the audience despite their enthusiastic attempts to knock over all the chess cones with a violence that has me worrying about man’s essential nature.

Meantime a sinister cardboard boat named El Destructor is circling, piloted by a bloke in a Stetson (hint!) while an unemotional chap in orange high-vis and hard-hat calmly cordons off the penguins’ playground with tape reading ‘Climate Disaster Area’.  The ensuing hideous blasts of sound annihilate the poor penguins, for whom all would be lost were it not for the valiant band of protestors who arrive to confront the despoilers. 

We learn of the terrible threat to marine life from Deep Sea Drilling, and the potential disaster to all New Zealand, as well as to Otago’s as yet undefiled coastline.  With memories of my last joyful dance along one of our glorious, wild and lonely beaches vivid in my mind, and the present sight of sad little empty penguin costumes strewn before the ‘Seismic Blasting’ sign, I am not disposed to argue. 

Yes, of course it is simplistic, but that is the nature of the form: a strongly felt political message, in this case “Keep Otago Oil-Free!”, packaged as an engaging, accessible piece of street theatre.  It is truly inspiring that there are still people with the passion to fight for their beliefs, the creativity to communicate them, and of course, a Fringe Festival to offer them a platform.

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