English children grow up knowing about Mr Punch. Turkish children are equally attached to Karagoz, a trickster shadow puppet and his friend Hacivat. In this latest devised show from the enterprising Little Angel, English and Turkish traditions are entwined as Karagoz comes to London.
When would-be poet and bad spell-maker, Hacivat, conjures a boat, and Karagoz makes a fortune ferrying gullible American tourists between Europe and Asia, the latter heads for the bright lights and tourist hot spots of London. Here the shadow puppet Karagoz falls in with the marionette Mr Punch, the rather more streetwise of the two. Soon Karagoz is forced to be a glove puppet and stand in for the absent Judy and baby. It is a jolly 70 minutes, but although the puppetry is entertaining, and the mixture of different styles that has become a hallmark of Steve Tiplady's energetic stewardship of this theatre is always intriguing, the show doesn't hold together quite as well as it should. Particularly for a young audience.
It looks very good and, as ever, there are some sequences to make you marvel. The plane taking Karagoz to London is so simply and cleverly done, and there is a wonderfully surreal interlude when we see how the familiar London landscape, including the tube sign, looks through the bewildered eyes of a new arrival. It is not just the design that is dead simple and effective but the music too.
However, the framing device is clumsy and the devised script not only lacks narrative drive and tension (there is nothing really at stake) but also wit. A song suddenly gets tossed in for no reason. It is pleasant enough, but a writer on board to shape and sharpen the material and give it much more punch could have made it special.
· Until May 1. Box office: 020-7226 1787.
