Splinters Theatre of Spectacle was an Australian Performance Troupe formed in Canberra in 1985 by

David Branson David Branson (February 1963 – 11 December 2001) was an Australian theatre director, actor, and writer. David Branson's father John was an Antarctic scientist, and his mother Margaret a school librarian. Branson was born in Melbourne in ...

, Patrick Troy, Ross Cameron, and John Utans, that was known for large outdoor spectacles. Between 1985 and 1996, Splinters produced more than 20 works that played at Australian theater festivals. In 1992, they produced ''Cathedral of Flesh'' which won the Best Promenade Theater Performance Award, at the

Adelaide Fringe Festival The Adelaide Fringe, formerly Adelaide Fringe Festival, is the world's second-largest annual arts festival (after the Edinburgh Festival Fringe), held in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. Between mid-February and mid-March each year, i ...

History

Splinters evolved through a collective of writers, musicians, visual and performance artists creating loosely related skits and scenes, into a multi-format art concept production company. Working in a variety of venues with hundreds of artists Splinters produced displays all around Australia. Their offices were situated in the Gorman House Arts Centre in Canberra. Utilizing techniques of theater, dance, performance art,

puppetry Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance that involves the manipulation of puppets – inanimate objects, often resembling some type of human or animal figure, that are animated or manipulated by a human called a puppeteer. Such a performan ...

pyrotechnics Pyrotechnics is the science and craft of creating such things as fireworks, safety matches, oxygen candles, Pyrotechnic fastener, explosive bolts and other fasteners, parts of automotive airbags, as well as gas-pressure blasting in mining, quarry ...

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

, music, and

crowd manipulation Crowd manipulation is the intentional or unwitting use of techniques based on the principles of crowd psychology to engage, control, or influence the desires of a crowd in order to direct its behavior toward a specific action. This practice is co ...

, Splinters performed one-offs, seasons, exhibitions, and events. Several performance and event groups gained momentum under the Splinters banner before launching their own companies including:

Snuff Puppets Snuff Puppets is an Australian puppet theatre company founded in 1992. They combine elements of puppetry, live music, visual and physical theatre to tackle taboo topics and make political satire. History Snuff Puppets originated in Canberra as ...

ODD Productions Odd means unpaired, occasional, strange or unusual, or a person who is viewed as eccentric. Odd may also refer to: Acronym * ODD (Text Encoding Initiative) ("One Document Does it all"), an abstracted literate-programming format for describing ...

Temple State A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

, Triclops. Splinters' first performance ''This Fantastic Lake'' in 1985 at the

Downer Community Hall Downer may refer to: * Downer (surname), various persons of that name * Downer, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra, Australia * Downer Glacier, Alaska * Downer, Minnesota, an unincorporated community * Downer (soil), the New Jerse ...

, Canberra was funded by International Youth Year. In 1988, Splinters received a grant from the

Capital Arts Patrons Organisation Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used fo ...

. After several national and rural tours funded by the Australia Council's Performing Arts Board, the last performance under the Splinters aegis was ''Orpheus'' at Gorman House, Canberra in 1997. In 2001, speaking at the Legislative Assembly for the ACT about the death of David Branson, the Australian Minister for Urban Services and Minister for the Arts called Splinters "one of the most innovative groups in Canberra's quite illustrious history of arts practice."

References

{{authority control Theatre companies in Australia