BLoG

...from: "Henry, A Puppet Possessed", to "The Puppeteer". I think it is more accurate, and potentially more intriguing, and ultimately has more possibility. Any objections? Interested to hear your thoughts!

Here's The Scotsman Review (came out in print a while back but I didn't catch it - not available online, I don't really know why) - “Puppetry is important,” intones the puppeteering artist undertaking a masterclass before us, with a perhaps overly weighty sense of gravitas, “but I don’t want anyone to die.” He’s just informed us that anyone who has a fear of puppets – for such a thing exists – may take their chance to leave the room now. Only those who are fully committed to

Ovid's Metamorphosis made me smile, Temoin's Feed made me laugh, and Grassmarket Project's "Where it hurts" made me cry. Brilliant, extraordinary, powerful - in fact it made everything else I've seen seem a bit pointless. Off to the Hebrides...

Outlaw punk puppeteers Wolfgang and Stine flyering in character...

Great! Funny, and charming and even beautiful. ...and our show went well today too. Lots of laughter and some whoops at the end. And that's all for today.

I've been flyering and you start to learn what captures people's imagination - "the story of a puppeteer", "a comedy about a puppeteer, comedy puppetry", "something to see at 3.30 in the King Dome today", "two for one today for limited tickets", "4 stars in The List today", "do you want my last flyer?", "Do you want to see a comedy about a puppeteer today?" etc. And then we hit on "grief and dying, control and manipulation" the flyers... flew.

The Fetch Wilson - Dublin card playing fight club - great story, great script and great performance! The Hit - Bunraku baby gangster puppet investigates "cognitive dissonance" in film noir style detective mystery. What's not to love? A Sockful of Custard - clever, funny, brilliant perfomances, messy like custard. The "dustbin song" is my favourite thing I've seen all year.

When the puppeteer notices his strings After the success of The Table, which was all about the puppet, Blind Summitt have turned their attention to the puppeteer Luke who, like artistic director and performer Mark Down, is reflecting on how his process reflects his life experience. Luke is battling with the aftermath of the death of his absent father and an ongoing conflict with his partner about having children - something that undermined previous relationships - and the pup

Mark Down, director of puppet theatre company Blind Summit, welcomes the audience to what he assures them will be a masterclass, not in puppetry, but in “object manipulation”. With the aid of two black-clad performers whose faces remain masked throughout, he intends to show us the beauty of his craft, to breathe life into the inanimate. There’s fun to be had watching Down parody the manner of ‘the director’, the master of his art, instructing his students to enter a deep ‘imp

So we've had every star rating almost, and people write that it's the worst show they ever seen in their life, and that it's their best show of the festival. Some people have been bemused, and one person told me the structure unfolds perfectly "like the black plastic bin bags that the puppets are made of". Someone said they found it cynical and other people said on the contrary they were very moved by it. Nearly everyone said they want more puppetry. I guess that's good reall