I love theatre. Of course I do. I wouldn’t be sitting here writing about it all of the time if I didn’t. It’s a wonderful way to tell a story. To make us laugh. Make us cry. Make us think. There is a closeness and realness that cannot be achieved in film. A theatre is a living thing all of its own and, for a little while, we get to peek at its soul.
You hope to come out feeling that you have experienced magic. Something special. Sadly, it’s not always the case. The law of average dictates that if you see as much theatre as I do you are bound to stumble upon something that should have stayed locked and buried in the backrooms of the imagination.
Tonight was no such night. Tonight there was magic.
Tim Burton meets Jim Henson in this beautiful and poetic masterpiece from German puppeteer group Figurentheater Tübingen.
A secret message dances out of a lonely drawer and tempts out creatures found only in nightmares.
It is dark and creepy, but the mood here is anything but bleak. Funny, touching and an absolute wonder to behold, this is why I go to the theatre.
The skill of the puppeteer is beyond comprehension. These creatures are alive and charm us all from the moment they raise their string operated heads. And though not a word is uttered during the hour, we want to know them. Understand them. Because, to us, they are real and deserve our attention.
The live music is wonderfully weird and is a character all on its own. The sound leads the show and we never want any of it to end. Here there is magic.
It is a world both of dreams and nightmares. Of death and life. Of ends and beginnings. Touching and completely barmy.
I wish you could have been there. I wish you could have seen this.
Show time: 3 February 2010, 7.30pm