Citizen Puppet, Pleasance, Review

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Rating (out of 5)
4
Show info
Company
Blind Summit
Production
Mark Down (writer and director) Mark Down & Rachel Good (design ) Helen Foan, Nick Barnes, Natasha Burns, Fiona Cliff, Mark Down, Rachel Selenis (Puppet Designers and makers), Fergus Waldron (sound design), Carolyn Choa (choreography)
Performers
Laura Caldow, Fiona Clift, Samuel Dutton, Simon Scardifield, Jake Waring
Running time
60mins

Da Da Daaa! Something big has happened in Massiveville!

Go behind the scenes in the land of fairy tales, and you’ll find a town called Massiveville populated by a disparate group of puppets sat on a variety of wee high seats. In their community everyone’s talking about “What happened” – thon big bang that was enough to waken the dead and soften fossils. What was it? Only the felling of the beanstalk and the tumbling to earth of the mighty giant who bided at the top. And just where is Jack? Puppet townsfolk gather to make sense of a literally earth shattering situation only to uncover the shocking evidence of gambling, theft, murder – and intrigue.

Music reminiscent of the Magic Roundabout signature tune nicely lulls the audience to a false sense of comfort. When the lights dim, what unfolds is a dark irreverent comically self -referential melodrama described by Blind Summit as a ‘verbatim ‘true crime’ puppet docu-drama’. This surreal world is inhabited by the likes of the formidable local pub landlady Granny Tina, the town’s cop DC Clive, Terry the beer loving priest and the play’s twitching drug ridden director. Black masked puppeteers provide the voices these brilliantly created puppets that have such an air of realism that they give the sense they could step down from their custom made chairs and start walking and talking among the audience when the show ends. Instead, they give a bizarre rendition of Phil Collins’ In the Air Tonight !

This is a clever show from masters of what is known as ‘extreme puppetry’. Blindingly good stuff!

5 - 30 August 2015 at 17:00 (no show 17 August)