Reviews & features: Puppetry

The Great Puppet Horn

Shadow puppetry show that leaves the comedy in another room

The Great Puppet Horn showed a devilish side recently by using their vast shadow puppet skills to project an image of Stewart Lee onto Edinburgh Castle. It was not an act of idolatry towards the agitprop comic, but the Horn guys were expressing their…

Boris and Sergey’s Vaudevillian Adventure

Droll and bawdy puppet double act

Droll and bawdy puppet double act Nothing covers cracks like cuteness. Boris and Sergey are two faceless leather bunraku puppets that look like reconstituted old footballs sprung to life. They speak in gravelly Russian honks and have more than enough…

Circus in Hand

Hand made circus puppetry with a human touch

There can’t be many circuses at the Fringe where you can behold a ringmaster standing on a giraffe’s head or a tap-dancing zebra. But then there can’t be many circuses at all where the performers are made from neat slices of stretchy fabric, adorably…

Night of the Big Wind

Touching show set in an Irish fishing village, ambitiously told

Following last year’s hugely enjoyable Street Dreams, Canterbury-based Little Cauliflower Theatre Company return with more puppetry, physical theatre and clowning in this whimsical and sometimes dewy-eyed show set in an Irish fishing village. But here…

Children's puppetry show Luminous Tales at 2012 Edinburgh Fringe

Zannie Fraser's Ripstop Theatre perform show about night-time for ages 4 and above

Zannie Fraser’s shadow puppetry has toured all over the world, but 2012 marks her Edinburgh Fringe debut in the guise of Ripstop Theatre, her own company. Fraser’s new show, Luminous Tales, is a collection of stories about night-time for audiences aged…

Fringe children's puppet shows Circus in Hand and Time For Fun

Russian puppeteers who have it all in hand

St Petersburg’s Hand Made Theatre make exactly that: theatre with their hands. The company’s actors all trained in puppetry at Russia’s State Theatre Arts Academy, and are about to make their Edinburgh Fringe debut. They bring with them two shows: Time…

Sammy J and Randy: Ricketts Lane

Extraordinary performances in an endearing show

It’s been a busy month for comedian Sammy J and his antipodean compatriot Randy the purple puppet (performed by Heath McIvor). As well as their respective solo shows they pair up for this high-energy musical about companionship and tax evasion. After…

Soldier and Death

Soldier fable let down by tiny puppets

There’s bags of potential in this talented young troupe of puppeteers who tell the fable-esque tale of a soldier who cheats death. All are compelling storytellers, taking turns as the narrator. But the puppets are miniscule, dwarfed by multiple…

Cloud Man

Delightful puppet show with its head in the clouds

Puppet maker/performer Ailie Cohen has been delighting young folk and their grown-ups for many a Fringe with her original stories and fairy-tale adaptations. Cloud Man is no exception, a deceptively simple story that will melt even the flintiest of…

Cloud Man combines puppetry and storytelling for 4-7-year-olds

Edinburgh Festival children's theatre show based on clouds

Sometimes they’re white and fluffy, more often than not they’re full of rain - but there’s something about clouds that holds our interest. The latest in a long line of artists to be inspired by the natural phenomenon is puppeteer Ailie Cohen, with her…

Arabian Nights

Tales from old Baghdad

As soon as you walk into the Storytelling Centre, you’re met with the exotic aroma of burning incense. That, and a stage filled with promise – middle eastern and otherwise. Andy Lawrence and his company, Theatre of Widdershins, have built up a…

Penguin

Puppetry and song for young ‘uns

Opening a bright, shiny package, little boy Ben discovers a penguin inside. But joy quickly turns to disappointment when the flightless fellow refuses to speak. Various attempts at persuasion are made, including a trip to the doctors, to no avail, until…

The Last Miner uses puppetry to profound effect

Moving, melancholic puppet show

This inventive show, developed by Tortoise in a Nutshell in association with Catherine Wheels, is short on action, features little dialogue and takes place on the tiny stage of the Hill Street studio theatre. But the tale of an elderly miner, living…

Sammy J in the Forest of Dreams

Aussie puppeteers pull our strings

The spirit of the Fringe is innovation rather than returning with a proven successful show. But since Heath McIvor's Randy's Postcards From Purgatory and Sammy J (Sammy J: 1999) are also performing their own new shows, we'll forgive the pair behind…

Puppet show round-up from the Edinburgh Festival

Rounding up the best acts made of socks, sponges and foam

Puppetry acts are the black sheep of the performing arts family: indulged but not held in serious regard. Shitty Deal Puppet Theatre Company’s Oh! What a Shitty War (●●) recounts the history of warfare with hand puppets. Mistaking the charmingly…

Rapunzel and the Tower of Doom

Storytelling puppetry for all ages

Finding a new way to tell an old tale isn’t easy, but if ever there was a man for the job, it’s Andy Lawrence. The former BBC designer turned puppeteer has enjoyed three sell-out Fringe shows with his company Theatre of Widdershins. And this year’s…

Sammy J and Heath McIvor's puppetry for grown-ups

Forests, Dreams and Postcards from Purgatory in two new shows

My favourite moments are when puppets break on stage,’ laughs puppeteer Heath McIvor, the man literally pulling the strings behind Sammy J in the Forest of Dreams, the cult adult puppet show which prepares to return to the Fringe this year. ‘There’s…

The Selfish Crocodile

Some kids shows get the puppets right, others throw out a few catchy songs, while some tell a good story. But Blunderbus Theatre Company does all three, perfectly aimed at their target age range of 3–7-year-olds. Based on Charles Terry’s popular…

The Elves and the Shoemaker

When it comes to classic tales, The Elves and the Shoemaker is high up on most people’s lists. Just picturing those little elves beavering away, creating tiny shoes, is enough to excite little ones, and send big ones down memory lane. Well you don’t…

Men of Steel

There are three feisty cookie cutters on the prowl, storming around having adventures and getting up to mischief. They’re powered by a trio of talented young puppeteers, a creative bunch who’ve already found success with the piece in their native…

Little Bear

Exploring is fun at any age, but for our eponymous hero there are a lot of firsts in his day. He discovers a tin barrel that not only makes great noises but can be used as boat. He meets some new friends along the way and learns that keeping his tummy…

The Terrible Infants

This collection of twisted morality tales for ages 9–14, are sumptuous testimony to Les Enfants Terribles’ collective methods. Yet artistic director, Oliver Lansley, as the trenchcoat-clad emcee still shines bright at its helm. Combining music…