Arts Preview: Avenue Q tackles sensitive issues with the help of puppets

In Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx's Broadway musical Avenue Q, puppets are used to satirise the fact that, in the adult world (and reality), no one is as "special" as they say in children's programmes such as Sesame Street.

But in Windmill Grass Theatre' Cantonese adaptation of the 2002 show, puppets are used to serve an extra function: to convey the more sensitive messages - including those about sex - to the audience.

"Although having puppets makes it seem like a children's production, Avenue Q deals with serious topics such as racial discrimination, sexual orientation and personal hardship," says director Fong Chun-kit, who is teaming up with Windmill Grass for the first time.

"Given puppets are objects, it allows the audience to be detached from the characters and digest how they deal with different problems without it being in their face. There's a sex scene, and having puppets to present that makes it easier to accept."

Revolving around a bunch of residents living in a fictitious street in New York, the musical features three human roles and 11 puppet characters. The story also references the many Hong Kong people who are leading meaningless and dreamless lives because they have to make ends meet.