Snuff Puppets is an Australian puppet theatre company that was founded in 1992. Originating in Canberra as part of Splinters Theatre of Spectacle, Snuff Puppets moved to a dusty warehouse in the industrial working-class suburb of Footscray in Melbourne in 1992, and are now based in the historic Footscray Drill Hall. Snuff Puppets founding members were Pauline Cady, Simon Terrill, and the current artistic director Andy Freer. The company tour the world with indoor and outdoor shows and roaming acts. Snuff Puppets combines the elements of puppetry, live music, visual and physical theatre. The company refers to its 'roaming acts' as 'interventions' as Snuff Puppets specialize in creating mayhem in the streets, playing with traffic and shoppers. Subjects that are considered taboo are tackled, with 'a vulgar, irreverent, gratuitously violent and a comic sensibility'. Realtime Magazine wrote that Snuff Puppets have a 'commitment to pushing bad taste to its extreme'. Snuff Puppet enjoy ‘a blackly dangerous humour, an incisive political satire, shamelessly handmade visual aesthetic; populist, free, joyous conflagration of art, audience and artist.’ In 2015 Snuff Puppet's promotional video for the installation 'Everybody' went viral, copies of the video have been reported as being viewed nearly 1 billion times. It's award-winning YouTube channel has several viral videos. The company takes direct action on political issues with appearances in dozens of political rallies in support for climate justice, world peace, third world debt relief, gay rights, Aboriginal civil rights and asylum seekers. Snuff Puppets have toured over 25 countries, including; New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, India, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, England, France, Netherlands, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Romania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Local communities have worked with Snuff Puppets with dozens of large scale workshops undertaken in Australia, Denmark, England, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Netherlands, Singapore, Thailand, Brazil and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The troupe won the 'Spirit of the Fringe' award from Melbourne Fringe and the 'Adelaide Fringe 2006 Circus / Physical Theatre Award'. The Victorian State Government and Maribyrnong City Council support Snuff Puppets with annual Arts Funding.
