Snuff Puppets is an Australian puppet theatre company. Founded in 1992, they combine elements of puppetry, live music, visual and physical theatre to discuss taboo topics and make political satire.

History

Snuff Puppets originated in Canberra as part of Splinters Theatre of Spectacle. They moved to a warehouse in the suburb of Footscray in Melbourne in 1992, and are now based in the historic Footscray Drill Hall. Snuff Puppets was founded by Pauline Cady, Simon Terrill, and the current artistic director Andy Freer. Nick Wilson became Co-Artistic Director in 2023.

The company tours with indoor and outdoor shows, roaming acts which they refer to as interventions because of their interactions with traffic and shoppers.

Snuff Puppets have embarked on more than 40 international tours, with performances in countries including; Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Denmark, Democratic Republic of the Congo, England, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, People’s Republic of China, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Romania, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan & Thailand.

They have conducted over 40 giant People's Puppet Project community workshops worldwide.

The Victorian State Government and Maribyrnong City Council have supported Snuff Puppets with annual Arts Funding. Crumpler bags are a decades long supporter of Snuff Puppets tours.

Response

In 2015, Snuff Puppet's promotional video for "Everybody" went viral; copies of the video have been reported as being viewed nearly 1 billion times.

Snuff Puppets Youtube channel has over 550,000 subscribers and 330 million viral video views.

Works in repertoire

Shows

• Fat For A Good Table
• Fool Skool
• Travelling Truck Show
• Scarey
• Forest In The Night
• Dancing Cow Show
• Browne Brothers
• A Cruel Life
• Twin Towers Show
• Circus Ole - with acrobat
• Nyet Nyet's Picnic - with Australian Indigenous Artists
• Snuff Clubb
• Wedhus Gembel - with Padepokan Seni, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
• Snuff Party
• Everybody
• Punch Agathe - with Stefanie Oberhoff & Espace Masolo, Kinshasa
• Heart
• Swamp
• Cochlea

Workshops

• People's Puppet Projects - Community development workshops
• Kidsnuff - Performance making workshops
• Snuff Skool - Puppeteering workshops
• Snuff Labb - Experimental theatre making workshops

Roaming acts

• Skullies
• The Boom Family
• Cows & Butcher
• Bunyips - with Australian Indigenous Artists
• Elephant
• Seagulls
• Snail
• Rhinocerus
• Human Body Parts
• Giant Crayfish - with the Bob Brown Foundation
• Beasts Of Oz
• Human Body Organs