The Puppet Theatre Barge is a singular and decidedly bewitching place. Moored on the water at Little Venice, it’s an intimate, pleasant theatre with unique marionettes hanging from the partitions. It’s a spot of magnificence and thriller; so it’s no shock when, from the second Pea begins right here, enchantment takes place. As puppeteers Eden Harbud and Bori Mezö start their efficiency, the theatre lights themselves are captured, dimmed then conjured anew across the stage. Magic! We’re thus charmingly ready for a inventive and quirky model of Hans Christian Andersen’s basic fairy story, The Princess and the Pea, reimagined…
Rating
Excellent
This completely epic bedtime journey is a massively gratifying up to date fairy story, brilliantly carried out and stuffed with fascinating puppetry.
The Puppet Theatre Barge is a singular and decidedly bewitching place. Moored on the water at Little Venice, it’s an intimate, pleasant theatre with unique marionettes hanging from the partitions. It’s a spot of magnificence and thriller; so it’s no shock when, from the second Pea begins right here, enchantment takes place.
As puppeteers Eden Harbud and Bori Mezö start their efficiency, the theatre lights themselves are captured, dimmed then conjured anew across the stage. Magic! We’re thus charmingly ready for a inventive and quirky model of Hans Christian Andersen’s basic fairy story, The Princess and the Pea, reimagined to deliver the story brilliantly bang updated.
Tiffany is anxious; actually not eager to strap into her seatbelt and go to satisfy her new stepfamily for the primary time. As a fairy story specialist herself, she is aware of that stepmothers are routinely merciless: Cinderella and Snow White would again her up on that, proper? At the unfamiliar home she will’t sleep, and so embarks on an epic quest to the underside of the mattress to seek out out what it’s conserving her awake. Her thrilling exploration uncovers a recent understanding of her newly prolonged household.
This is an exquisitely produced piece of labor. It intricately combines fantasy and actuality, utilizing fashionable and imaginative puppetry, lighting and sound, to create a fascinating storytelling setting. We’re taken on a fascinating, adventurous journey that perceptively engages with themes of hysteria and coping mechanisms, whereas smashing gender stereotyping and fairy story tropes. Tiffany is an indeniable hero!
Reality and fiction develop into surprisingly disconnected because the characters, reasonably than talking themselves, carry out to an audio narration on a separate, fantastically customary soundtrack. This is fascinating; drawing you in and holding your consideration so that you pay attention additional fastidiously. It’s as if an alternate story dimension is shaped between creativeness and actuality, wherein Tiffany embarks on a journey to deal with her dilemma.
New areas and locations are created by a deceptively intricate set, which transforms effortlessly and but secretes all of the props and surroundings required for Tiffany’s journey to the depths of the mattress. The lighting all through can also be cleverly theatrical, used sparingly however surprisingly, to deliver the story vibrantly to life. We see it seen in several scales and sizes, taking us underwater or displaying the heights of a mountainous mattress.
Harbud and Mezö are flawless and fascinating performers. They use splendidly witty dialogue alongside extremely expressive bodily motion, which provides readability to the story. And there’s a pleasant, assorted vary of puppets to be loved, every distinctly and appealingly characterised. Tiffany herself is a beautiful, finely crafted art work, designed by Blythe Brett, however she encounters pleasant helpers in different kinds: there’s a bumbling, bemasked shepherd counting sheep, while the hilarious thieving mattress bugs are fabulously fuzzy enjoyable, blown as much as an unlimited measurement by Tiffany’s trusty magnifying glass. Others would possibly merely be a performing finger, which allows chance to an viewers who would possibly need to re-enact the story themselves at residence.
In basic quest format, Tiffany overcomes many thrilling challenges to seek out her approach to the answer, and it truly is nice enjoyable; massively gratifying for adults and kids alike. Charming, intelligent and with delicate fashionable relevance, Pea is a terrific story, fantastically crafted and nicely advised, that boldly goes the place no puppet has gone earlier than: to the tip of the mattress!
Created and devised by: Eden Harbud and Sam Williams for Nod on the Fox
Puppet and Set Design: Blythe Brett
Supported by: The Puppet Theatre Barge, Arts Council England, Cambridge Junction & The Curious School of Puppetry