Expectations unfulfilled in puppet show

CLEVER puppetry and good use of a video screen are highlights of this show. But the Handspring Puppet Company’s success with its work for the lauded West End production of War Horse is not matched here.

In this adaptation of Georg Buchner’s 19th century play, a German soldier Woyzeck is transformed into a migrant worker in 1956 Johannesburg. It is a tragic story and leads to a murder. Woyzeck cannot escape his wretched life and is eaten up with jealousy when his wife betrays him with a miner.

The rod-manipulated puppets are great, particularly the fat doctor and the thin captain, and the puppeteers handle them with such skill that you don’t notice them. The voices are appropriately African but not always distinct.

The charcoal animations, projected onto the screen, are fascinating and well drawn but often attract attention away from the puppets.

Unfortunately, any expectations of another War Horse are unfulfilled.

Peter Gawthorpe