Puppet Theatre
We invite the audience into an imaginary place in which anything is possible:
A world in which puppets come to life, mediated by the presence of their manipulators. The inherent vulnerability of the miniature world demands a tenderness and sensitivity from the performers, and also from the audience who become complicit in the manifestation of its reality.
Our distinctive multi-layered style features the puppets and puppeteers on stage together; this co-existence offers powerful metaphors, and allows for extraordinary moments of transformation. For example, a character can exert power over another simply by being its manipulator(An Episode of Sparrows), or by being of a vastly different scale (In the Time of Miracles) or the puppeteer can be the puppet’s own inner voice (The Winter’s Tale). Two levels of reality can coexist (Dream).
Central to our theatre is a curiosity about the relationship between the puppeteers and the stories they tell (Anouska and Rosa Go to Find the Sun). Stories are often derived from real people we know (21 Ways to Make the World Last Longer), and set in real places (The World is Upside Down).
We have further heightened this exploration of scale by creating in site-specific circumstances - in a cornfield (The MAIZE Show), in deliberately planted sets (The Faerie Play), in streets and shops (A Small Miracle).
And going back to our roots in the marionette theatre - the invisible puppeteers can make anything happen because the world is miniature (Robin and the Timeless Forest) and the puppeteers are entirely invisible
What the plays have in common is a grassroots aesthetic in design-based finely crafted puppet theatre, using simple materials and a colourful palette consistent with our rural home and roots in folk traditions. Music is always live.
Puppetry requires attention to detail and consistency; it requires that the puppeteer be absent while on stage to make room for the puppet to come to life.
Site specific:
A Small Miracle (2000) set in streets and shops of Enderby (remount 2013, reset in Stratford Ontario 2010).
At our space in Grindrod:
An Episode of Sparrows (2007)
Tale of the Unknown Island / King of Capri (2005);
The Winter’s Tale (2003/2006; Grindrod, remounted at The Belfry Victoria);
Outdoors:
in deliberately planted settings of corn, sunflowers, vegetables:
In the Time of Miracles (2004); The MAIZE Show (2003); The Faerie Play (2002) as well as various community events
For theatres:
21 Ways to Make the World Last Longer, (2016/2018 Victoria, Salmon Arm, Vernon, Revelstoke, Whitehorse, Dawson City, Saltspring)
Touring Shows:
Toured to many B.C. Interior communities.
Robin and the Timeless Forest (2016; school tour 2018) created through youth mentorship
Dream (2011/2014: Victoria, BC Interior); inspired by Mexican folktale
The World is Upside Down (2010) about intercultural confusion during a visit to Kenyan village
Anouska and Rosa Go to Find the Sun (2001; also Vancouver) derived from 4-year olds talking with mothers
Other ways of creating and disseminating:
Labyrinth Series (2008-2011) Through a collaborative creation process, a group of theatre artists created 4 entirely different versions of the Greek myth Theseus and the Minotaur. We took this process, (and puppets/masks/costumes) to Saltspring Island, Vancouver DTES (Vancouver Moving Theatre), and Humber College Toronto, co-creating local versions with local residents.
How did you get here? (2017-2019) suitcase show creation process, taken to Victoria and to Hornby Island (and BC Interior) where participants created one-person shows.
The Miraculous (After) life of San Isidro (2020,2021) Zoom presentations of work-in-progress