There's quite the irony in the fact that Assigned Puppet At Birth, a show about reclaiming one's own identity, once had its previous title challenged by a corporate legal team. Originally called The Lovers, The Dreamers & Me, a mildly stern email from a certain large entertainment corporation prompted a rebrand. The new title, of course, is funnier, more defiant, and far more apt. Which rather sums up Issy Coomber themselves.
Performed as part of Sydney's Pride Fest at Qtopia's Substation in Darlinghurst, this cabaret arrives fresh from a celebrated season at the Adelaide Fringe, and the polish shows. Coomber, a transmasc non-binary artist and WAAPA alumnus, brings formidable performance credentials to bear on deeply personal material.
The show opens with the warmth and wide-eyed innocence in the style of TV's Playschool, a grown-up version naturally, before Coomber deftly steers proceedings into wry adult satire. The puppet show not to mentioned homage is clear throughout, though its felt-amphibian inspiration is pointedly unnamed. What emerges across the performance is a layered autobiography that moves fluently between the comic and the profound.
The original songs are a highlight. A parody of Liza Minnelli's signature number, rechristened Issy With a Them, lands with clever wordplay and sharp comic timing. The equally cheeky Don't Have Kids If You Wouldn't Want a Furry hits with gleeful, anarchic energy. But Coomber is equally adept at the quieter register, with wistful, deeply emotive songs that land with an authenticity that feels hard-won rather than performed.
The show's emotional heart is frankly drawn from life experience. Coomber reflects on the puzzling discomfort that other people seem to feel when someone is simply at ease being themselves. They had been regarded, they tell us, as one of the "good ones," trans without baggage, apparently, as though authentic self-expression were an imposition. The tension between being seen and being palatable runs quietly through everything.
A photograph of Coomber's younger self appears, accompanied by the quietly touching observation: "I couldn't be me now if it wasn't for her." And then, a moment from a touring engagement in Japan, performing as their then female self, with Issy departing to head home, a colleague leaned in and whispered, "See you soon, sweet boy." That small, private act of recognition, offered so unexpectedly, speaks volumes. The relief, the visibility, the grace of being truly seen.
The show's finale circles back to a simple but searching question. Would the younger Issy be happy with who they've become? It's a question that hangs in the air with remarkable emotional weight, and Coomber lets it breathe.
There are moments where the production feels as though it's still finding its fullest shape. The material has the energy of something that could comfortably expand into grander, even over-wrought Vegas-scale staging, but there is nothing underdeveloped about the performer at its centre. Coomber's vocals are emotional when required, their tap dance work is a surprise inclusion, their comic instincts sharp, and their capacity for vulnerability disarming.
Joyful, camp, satirical and deeply human, Assigned Puppet At Birth is a memorable cabaret experience. It also makes a quietly radical case for joy as something more than feeling good, but also as something closer to resistance.
Issy Coomber: Assigned Puppet At Birth performed at Qtopia's Substation, Darlinghurst, as part of Sydney Pride Fest 2026.
https://qtopiasydney.com.au
https://www.instagram.com/issy_coomber
(images: supplied/Tim Stackpool)
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