Brisbane’s GOMA is showcasing the best of Jim Henson’s work right now and some of that work impacted me in a way I can never forget.

The Make, Believe, Magic: The Worlds of The Jim Henson Company exhibition is now open and runs until April next year. Running alongside this, GOMA is presenting a program of films showcasing productions created by The Jim Henson Company, as well as projects that feature the work of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop – and the screenings in the gallery’s Australian Cinematheque are free.

The Screened to be Believed: The Jim Henson Company showcase includes several fan favourites featuring Henson creations, including The Muppets Take Manhattan, The Witches and Labyrinth, plus deeper cuts such as The Christmas Toy and The Cube. Also showing will be The Happytime Murders, a late 2010 crime-comedy that received mixed reviews.

When it comes to Jim Henson, though, there is one show that will always have a special place in my heart, and that is Fraggle Rock.

Fraggle Rock is a show that seems to have flown under the radar – a lot of people who I talk to are unfamiliar with the 1980s puppet series, and even its 2022 remake, Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock. (The set of this show is now sitting across a gallery space at GOMA.) But, if you ask me, I think it is a very underrated show that deserves to be just as iconic as Sesame Street.

For the uninitiated, Fraggle Rock follows five Fraggles – Gobo, Mokey, Wembley, Boober and Red – who coexist in a system of caves called Fraggle Rock, alongside other Fraggles and another species, the Doozers. Fraggle Rock is connected to two other realms: the garden of the Gorgs (home of giants who are obsessed with capturing Fraggles) and Outer Space (our world). The Fraggles get up to all sorts of mischief, such as finding treasure, harvesting radishes and contemplating death after being trapped in a cave-in.

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They regularly receive postcards from Gobo’s Uncle Travelling Matt, who spends most of the series in Outer Space, writing home about his adventures.

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An episode I would like to focus on here is the seventh instalment of the first season, I Want to Be You. This focuses on Red, who is upset that the other Fraggles pay more attention to Mokey’s poem-writing rather than Red’s stunts.

After a musical number and a visit to the trash heap (a literal pile of trash called Marjory, who the Fraggles rely upon for guidance and wisdom), Red decides to act like Mokey. After another musical number, the Fraggles decide to visit the trash heap to work out what’s wrong with Red but are captured by the Gorgs. It’s up to Red to save them, and she does after embracing her own personality and acting like herself again.

I remember this episode being one of my favourites as a kid, and it’s honestly still something that resonates with me now.

When I was younger, I never really felt like I fitted in with the other boys at school. I was never playing the same games they were and I wasn’t watching the same shows.

I remember playing basketball at school. All the other boys were loud, cocky and confident. I usually kept to myself and was not confident at all (I always wore a shirt under my singlet because I was afraid of people looking at my shoulders!). I was a Red in a world of Mokeys. Okay, maybe calling a regular teenage boy a Mokey is not the greatest comparison, but you get the idea. I kept my hair short. I tried wearing the clothes the other boys would wear, tried to copy what everyone else was doing, but it was not working.

Now, several years later, I’m a completely different person. I grew my hair long, started dressing myself more femininely and taught myself how to put on makeup. I remember looking a bit like Marjory after my first time putting eyeliner on, but I am getting better!

I learnt that I should not let what’s popular dictate what I wear or what I do. I should just be me. And now that I know what that means, I’m the happiest I’ve been for a long time, the most confident I have been and I’m surrounded by a large network of family and friends who love me for who I am. Much like Red, I’m better when I am myself.

There is a strong Fraggle Rock presence at Make, Believe, Magic: The Worlds of The Jim Henson Company, which displays the Great Hall set from Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock.

As well as Fraggle Rock there are other films and shows that also resonate with me. Muppets from Space is a great exploration of identity and belonging. Labyrinth, starring David Bowie as the Goblin King, is a great coming-of-age film and taught me to be accountable for my actions. And The Dark Crystal, well, it is just really cool.

I can’t say for sure if Jim Henson is responsible for changing my life, but it’s fun to think about as a possibility.

Screened to be Believed: The Jim Henson Company showcase screens at GOMA until April 18, 2027.

qagoma.qld.gov.au/cinema/program/screened-to-be-believed-the-jim-henson-company

This article was written as part of The Critical Writing Program, run in partnership with Queensland Writers Centre and InReview Queensland, supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland, part of the Department of Education.