This is the second festival outing for Men Of Steel, the human-shaped pastry cutters who embark on a series of epic adventures, all played out with kitchen implements and the contents of a well-stocked pantry.

Their appeal to children is obvious: it’s silly, messy and playfully violent as foodstuffs get sploshed around in some giant battle of good versus evil. It is the ultimate food fight.

But there’s plenty for adults to enjoy too, if only the ingenuity in which the three puppeteers – who are clearly visible at all times – adapt the kitchenware to become flying saucers, luxury yachts or a giant, mutant monster with drinks cartons for legs and a crisp packet for a torso.

Because we can see those manipulating the action, it’s their expressions that convey the emotion of our mostly faceless heroes and villains. The trio have also created their own language for their dollar-store characters, so they babbly away nonsensically, but almost comprehensibly. They’re a very talented bunch – though perhaps their skills might not be ideally transferable in today’s competitive job market.

‘On holiday’, our two stainless heroes must defeat a stern headmistress – as played by a clipboard affixed to an angle-poise mechanism – an evil prawn who rides to battle on his trusty lettuce and even, hilariously, a giant, bare-chested Jamie Oliver.

Funniest of all, though, they try to blag their way into a ‘jelly wrestling’ club, adopting various disguises to try to sneak past the preening Ken doll who guards the door. And most disgusting of all: a fight with an ox’s tongue that ends very messily indeed.

Everything is played out to a pumping, apt soundtrack that just adds to the sense of daft fun. It is childish, for sure, but that’s no bad thing, even for adults.

Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Melbourne, April 2007