HANSEL AND GRETEL. To 31 August, then tour.

Young People

HANSEL & GRETEL

Norwich Puppet Theatre To 31 August 2002 (then tour)
Tue-Sat 2.30pm (no performance: 6,16,22,27 August).
Runs 45min + discussion

TICKETS 01603 629921
Review Timothy Ramsden 30 July

A beautifully constructed and performed piece, well up to this company's exceptionally high standards.Norwich's latest puppet play draws on both their popular vein of humour and, especially, the poetic use of puppet and puppet/puppeteer relationship which distinguishes the company's home-made productions (this show will also tour East Anglia in autumn).

Imagination and invention are, as always, inherent in artistic director Luis Boy's production. Even coffee mugs can be called on to help create a soundscape and the staging has a simplicity which increases focus on the action.

Key to the show, too, is the relation the operators have with their creatures, at times looking on with concern and sympathy, at others seeming silently to be in critical debate with a puppet's actions. Not only does this increase audience concentration, it adds to the illusion of the models' humanity.

Not that it's hard to believe in this, given the expressive modelling of features and the sense of mood, enhanced by Nick Carpenter's live musical inserts under the action.

Boy adapts the story, principally by replacing the Witch's tempting sweet offers by the entertainment of a puppet show: so there's a puppet Hansel and Gretel, and a Mr Punch for good measure. And Gretel dispatches the Witch with apparent ease and rapidity.

Followed as it is by a chance for young people to talk to the cast human and puppet and to try out some of the puppets for themselves, NPT's new piece maintains their high quality, poetic use of puppetry.

Performed by:
Cendrine Belleux
Mark Whitaker

Director/Designer: Luis Z. Boy
Music: Nick Carpenter

2002-08-06 14:07:22