Here is a rather lovely show from Norwich Puppet Theatre, that clocks in at a not-too-stretching 45 minutes, and is aimed at very little children (3+) as well as a bit older. It’s performed very nicely by a single actor, Gretchen Maynard-Hahn, who also made the various puppets and marionettes as well as – I suspect – the ingenious folding flats that form the entirety of the set.
Adapted from a book by Joyce Dunbar, the story itself is a trifle: a small boy, lonely and a bit sad, decides to make his own friends, and finds himself transported to a mysterious world populated by three unlikely beings: Lostlet, Strangelet and Oddlet. One has a shell, another a leaf, another a pebble. The boy himself has a haircut resembling two black loo brushes clamped to his head. There are nice lessons about friendship and hugging contained therein – but it’s the charming puppetwork that carries it all along.
What is particularly impressive about the design (by Maynard-Hahn) and direction, from Joy Haynes, are the constant changes in perspective and distancing. At one point, the boy is a tiny, thumb-sized puppet trotting over the far horizon; at another, he’s a gigantic mask dominating the pocket-sized Burton Taylor stage area. Maynard-Hahn handles everything very adroitly, taking on a range of a puppeteering techniques, from rod-and-push to the full marionette. The puppets are very much handmade, wood-and-fabric affairs, which only adds to the comfy aesthetic.
I can report that all the kids in the audience appeared properly spellbound, with absolutely nothing to alarm even my slightly nervous three-year-old. And when it was all over, and Maynard-Hahn invited the children to come up to the stage and have a closer look at the puppets, not a single kid hung back.
