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Latest articles from this section

warhorse

The Week in Performing Arts - 18/1/12

Thursday, 19th January 2012

Catherine Bennett resumes the weekly look at the performing arts world, with the sad end of Jerusalem, the luck of a cabbie, and French revolt. Do you hear the people sing?

nigel

Nigel Kennedy

Monday, 16th January 2012

Adam Alcock reviews Nigel Kennedy playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons and his own Four Elements at York Opera House.

bird puppet

The Week in Performing Arts - 21/12/11

Wednesday, 21st December 2011

Catherine Bennett highlights the trends in the performing arts world today.

ghosts

Ghosts

Wednesday, 21st December 2011

Jonathan Cridford reviews 'Ghosts', one of the Freshers' plays for this year.

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woz
christmas presents
nativity
butley

Butley

Sat, 10th Dec 11
woz
six lips

Hands Off

Sun, 4th Dec 11
stig
cabaret

Cabaret

Fri, 2nd Dec 11
annie

Annie

Fri, 2nd Dec 11

An Other Once Upon a Time - Drama Barn - 03/12/09

An Other Once Upon A Time
Friday, 4th December 2009
This week’s Drama Barn offering, An Other Once Upon a Time has nothing if not an intriguing concept. Fairy tales enacted by four human puppets, almost porcelain in appearance, who’s every move and gesture, was directed by their puppeteers. Combined with an omnipresent narrator, ingenious use of set and haunting ethereal music this production was fascinating, enthralling but unavoidably divisive.

Integral to the performance was the interaction between the puppeteers and their charges, a challenge that they rose to remarkably well. Their demeanour and appearance, clad head to toe in black, meant that aside from the odd shuffle or slip they blended seamlessly into the background, allowing all focus to rest on the eerily stiff, yet still remarkably expressive puppets. Steven Li, in his role as Hansel excelled in this, capturing the blank unnatural characteristics of the puppet wonderfully.

Set was also manipulated by the puppeteers and moved along with the human puppets, ranging from an undulating river complete with swimming duck to a troupe of dwarves, fashioned plainly yet effectively from cloaks and cloth faces. This mirrored the simple plots and dialogue, which far from boring the audience helped to draw them in with familiarity and ensure that the actions of the puppets never became distressingly convoluted.

The story was dictated throughout by a pair of narrators, Abigail Denneny and Adrian Tellwright who were superb for the most part, their calm stillness yet urgent narrative never detracting from the puppets themselves. However the bold move of sharing of lines between themselves and the puppets all too easily displayed any slipped lines and the differing rhythms of voice occasionally ensured an unflattering mesh of speech.

What lifted the performance from the simply different was the music, performed live before the audience on a number of exotic instruments including the Erhu (a two-stringed fiddle) and the Indian Flute among others. Constantly wavering gently in the background throughout the play, they accentuated perfectly the gentle, almost ethereal nature of the production as well as providing any necessary song effects – the trills of the singing bird was a particular favourite.

The production is unlike anything performed in the barn recently and this unavoidably brings with it certain characteristics. Whilst the show was fascinating and wonderfully elegant to this reviewer, the lack of normal expression and simple pre-determined plots may equally bore others. For now however, at least for myself, the novelty remains.

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