The Magic Pudding was written in 1918 to settle a bet, but no one would have put money on it then that 100 years later it would still be of Australia’s best-loved stories.
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While Norman Lindsay believed that children loved two things above all else - food and fighting - his friend Bertram Stevens said children liked the familiar European fairy tales. Lindsay wrote a tale to prove him wrong and it’s never been out of print since.
Over the years, the story has been an opera, a film and a stage play but it was first adapted into a puppet show in 1960.
Peter Scriven, of the Marionette Theatre of Australia, approached Lindsay with the idea of telling the story with his marionettes. Lindsay produced 40 watercolour paintings specifically for Scriven to use as inspiration for both the puppets and the set.
The original puppets were destroyed in a fire in Botany in 1969, along with 300 others belonging to Scriven's Marionette Theatre of Australia.
Scriven, with the help of his puppet makers at the time, Christine Barker and Michael Fitzgerald, hurriedly rebuilt them, and the show toured until 1988.
Now two of these puppets have gone on display at the National Museum of Australia to commemorate the centenary of The Magic Pudding.
Senior curator Sophie Jensen said the museum acquired about 20 puppets in late 2017 and this was the first opportunity to put them on display after the conservation process took place.
The Magic Pudding, Albert, himself, and the koala Bunyip Bluegum, will be on display in the main foyer of the museum over the summer.
“The puppets are quite beautiful,” Jensen said.
“I think this comes down to the quality of the drawings that Lindsay produced for Scriven.
“They honestly look like the pictures we're all so familiar with, like the characters have leapt straight off the pages and are in three dimensions.
“They really capture the magic of the story.”
Jensen says the story has remained much loved because it appeals to our sense of fun and adventure.
“But there is also an element of abundance to The Magic Pudding.
“We would all love a pudding that we could cut and carve and eat again and again.
“It’s a pretty magical notion, I know it appeals to me as a pudding lover, there is never too much pudding.”
Museum textile conservator Michelle Newton-Edwards said the conservation team enjoyed the challenge of working with the puppets, analysing the different components and structures.
“It’s been fascinating to see how they’ve worn over the years, and repaired with love and care," she said.
“Even after 50 odd years the palette of colours is still so vibrant.”
Just like the story itself after 100.
