Puppetry
- Filtered by:
- Puppetry
38 articles
Sorted by popularity / date
A guide to Scotland's cabaret, circus, magic and puppetry festivals and organisations
8 Nov 2012
Groups and festivals working in live art, including Conflux, Club Noir, Manipulate and Surge
Cabaret artiste The neo-burlesque scene has gone mainstream thanks in no small part to the efforts of Club Noir, which runs events all over the country from its base at the O2 Academy in Glasgow. Claiming a place in Guinness World Records for being…
The Great Puppet Horn
22 Aug 2012
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…
Children's puppetry show Luminous Tales at 2012 Edinburgh Fringe
25 Jul 2012
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…
Simon Starling’s Project for a Masquerade
3 Nov 2010
Complex sculptural meditation features a star-studded cast
The pan-global plot of Simon Starling’s latest work is as labyrinthine as a Cold War spy thriller. The quiet elegance of the GSA-trained 2005 Turner Prize winner’s Project for a Masquerade (Hiroshima) / Mirror Room similarly references both real and…
2013 Manipulate festival of puppetry and animation
22 Jan 2013
Programme includes work by TIP Connection, Will Anderson, Ainslie Henderson and The Paper Cinema
Now in its sixth year, the Manipulate Festival has evolved into a highlight of Scotland’s cultural calendar. In 2013, the puppetry and animation festival returns to the Traverse but adds Summerhall to its list of Edinburgh venues too and boasts its…
Boris and Sergey’s Vaudevillian Adventure
20 Aug 2012
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
17 Aug 2012
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
9 Aug 2012
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…
Fringe children's puppet shows Circus in Hand and Time For Fun
23 Jul 2012
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…
Constance Marks, director of puppet doc Being Elmo - interview
25 Apr 2012
The documentary shows the life of puppeteer Kevin Clash
‘I backed into it innocently,’ says Constance Marks of her project to illuminate the man behind the world’s most famous fuzzy red baby monster. Whilst working as a cameraman on Sesame Street, Marks’ husband brought home a personal recorded message from…
Teaching kids French through puppetry
26 Mar 2012
Bilingual puppetry company Le Petit Monde present their Easter show, Lapin Wants an Easter Carrot
As any adult who has undertaken a language class will tell you, it goes in quicker when you’re younger. Learning French as a child, when that little sponge-like brain is firing on all cylinders, isn’t just easier, it’s a lot more fun since Tania Czajka…
The Lost Sock Princess
19 Dec 2011
Puppet Lab's festive show for under-sevens is infectious, interactive fun
Ever wondered what happens to your socks when they disappear from the washing machine? Puppet Lab provides some highly persuasive answers to this conundrum in a big-hearted entertainment pitched at children under the age of seven. The show kicks off in…
Interview: Simon Hart, artistic director of the Manipulate Visual Theatre Festival
19 Dec 2011
Highlights of the 2012 theatre and puppetry festival programme
What can we expect from this year’s Manipulate programme? A great festival with an eclectic international mix: of stylish and sophisticated object theatre, digital projections, animations – and lots of water – in the Theatre Sans Soucis’ Hamletmachine…
Lost Sock Princess
13 Dec 2011
A puppet theatre performance that lets you join in – all you need is an odd sock
Try as you might to wash and dry them together, socks have a way of parting company somewhere between the laundry basket and underwear drawer. It’s at that point you need the Lost Sock Princess to help you reunite the estranged pair. Or do you? One…
Archive Trails - Artists making new work from old photos and songs from Scotland's past
21 Sep 2011
Scottish folk ballads reworked via song, video and puppetry
After months of delving through old photos and songs, three performers aim to bring to life Scotland’s long-lost folk ballads through experimental vocals, video and glove puppets. Rachel Devine reports
Sammy J and Randy: Ricketts Lane
30 Aug 2011
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
26 Aug 2011
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
14 Aug 2011
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
29 Jul 2011
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…
Avenue Q - The adult puppet musical
15 Jun 2011
Tony Award-winning show touches on more grown up issues
Don’t judge a book by its cover – and in the case of Avenue Q, don’t judge a musical by its poster. This Tony Award-winning show may look like a toddler’s dream date, but Muppet-style puppets aside, it’s adult content all the way. ‘We deal with…
Interview - Artist Shelly Nadashi
21 Mar 2011
Glasgow Transmission show continues interest in puppet shows
Your new installation continues your interest in puppet shows – how did that fascination come about? The first puppets’ performances I saw were in Hungary when I was traveling in 2000. They have some very authentic but contemporary puppetry there. I…
Manipulate festival - Puppetry and animation festival avoids the P word
14 Jan 2011
Traverse season features cult animation and visually arresting films
Simon Hart is trying not to use the P word. When he describes his annual Manipulate festival, he prefers to call it a celebration of visual theatre (with the teasing strap line: ‘innovative theatre arts for consenting adults’) than to say anything about…
Arabian Nights
14 Aug 2010
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…
White
12 Aug 2010
Charmingly surreal show for toddlers
Catering to the attention spans of fidgety toddlers while also offering value for money, this 35-minute show actually begins in the garden outside – where there’s a host of white objects to talk and think about – and ends with time for chat and play…
Penguin
12 Aug 2010
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…
