Like what you've read?

On Line Opinion is the only Australian site where you get all sides of the story. We don't
charge, but we need your support. Here�s how you can help.

  • Advertise

    We have a monthly audience of 70,000 and advertising packages from $200 a month.

  • Volunteer

    We always need commissioning editors and sub-editors.

  • Contribute

    Got something to say? Submit an essay.


 The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
On Line Opinion logo ON LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

Subscribe!
Subscribe





On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would like to help, contact us.
___________

Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

The Wakadoo Café in Canberra

By Patricia Edgar - posted Monday, 24 June 2013


As our parliamentary players have switched into vaudeville and politicians are vying to take centre stage, grab attention and play the fool, I am reminded strongly of a program I produced 20 years ago called Lift-Off which included a puppet segment called the Wakadoo Café. It was a realm where human feelings and relationships, in all their complexity, were explored through the Boss, Lonely, Nearly, Zelda, Cook, the Wolf and the Three Pigs, with their foibles and anxieties. It was designed to teach three to eight-year-olds about emotional intelligence.

The program was based upon the theory by eminent Harvard Professor Howard Gardner who argued that intelligence was not a unitary concept concerned only with the RRRs. He identified seven intelligences which should be developed in young children if they were to grow into well rounded human beings. They included inter-personal and intra-personal intelligence, that is the understanding of our relationships with others and our understanding of ourselves. These are intelligences that seem to be singularly lacking in many of our politicians.

To teach these concepts to young audiences we settled on puppets who worked in the Wakadoo Café and sang about their concerns. They each represented a particular personality trait and interacted with one another from that perspective.

Advertisement

Bob Ellis was the main writer who also composed the lyrics to the music of Chris Neal. Terry Denton drew the characters and the now famous sculptor Ron Mueck created them as three dimensional puppets. The creative team was remarkably prescient in designing for the Wakadoo Café the characters who seem to inhabit Parliament house today.

Boss, who ran the café, is a dead ringer for Julia Gillard; she's got the shape and is dressed like the PM, even down to the large beads around her neck. She was definitely in charge.

I'm boss of this Café.

There'll be no mistaking

I give out the orders

And no lunch breaking.

The eager beaver called Nearly has to be Wayne Swan:

Sometimes when you're down

And your day is going brown

And you don't know who you are

What's the journey and how far

It's important that you know whatever miles you go

Whatever skies you scan, I can, I can

I can do it in my way.

Wolf looks strangely like Bob Carr and has a mellifluous tone reminiscent of our roving Minister:

Advertisement

I'm Wolf, I'm a star

I'm a moving and a shaking.

I've stormed the heights of stardom

I've been a tour de force and I've been forced to tour

In the life of a showman I've found illusion is all.

The Three Pigs Boris, Morris and Doris could be played by any number of the characters in Parliament House. Their refrain is familiar:

The face you wear when meeting

The people you are greeting

Is not the face beneath the face you wear…

The face I wear is useful because it's so untruthful.

I smile and chat but underneath I sneer.

The me that's me, you never see,

The face beneath the face through which I peer,

I wonder how I'd look if I was here.

  1. Pages:
  2. Page 1
  3. 2
  4. All

Patricia Edgar was the Founding Director of the Australian Children's Television Foundation. Her next book In Praise of Ageing will be published by Text in October



Discuss in our Forums

See what other readers are saying about this article!

Click here to read & post comments.

8 posts so far.

Share this:
reddit this reddit thisbookmark with del.icio.us Del.icio.usdigg thisseed newsvineSeed NewsvineStumbleUpon StumbleUponsubmit to propellerkwoff it

About the Author

Patricia Edgar is an author, television producer and educator. She was the founding director of the Australian Children's Television Foundation. She is also the author of In Praise of Ageing and an Ambassador for the National Ageing Research Institute.

Other articles by this Author

All articles by Patricia Edgar

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Article Tools
Comment 8 comments
Print Printable version
Subscribe Subscribe
Email Email a friend
Advertisement

About Us Search Discuss Feedback Legals Privacy