Bulgarian puppeteer Milena Milanova has produced a commendable one-woman puppet show based upon Chekov’s one-act play On The Harmful Effects of Tobacco. Nikotine is an hour-long lecture on smoking given by a puppet – called Nikolai Nikotine – in which he uses much of his time to complain about his overbearing wife, drawing comparisons between marriage and the act of smoking.
Milanova’s operation of the simple puppet is proficient. On one hand she holds the stuffed head; her other hand forms the left hand of the puppet and her feet attach to the sheet that is the puppet’s body. What the puppeteering lacks in complexity it makes up for in character as Milanova’s humour and warm delivery charm the audience.
There isn’t very much that goes beyond or above expectations – perhaps that is the restriction of the 19th century text. But the character is believable and we empathise with him in his oppression. In one section Milanova makes excellent use of her whole body as the puppet dances, although sightline issues in the small venue meant that a lot of the work she was doing with her feet was lost.
She is to be applauded for an entertaining piece of solo puppetry, something that is very difficult to make work. But with stellar contributions such as the work of Bunk Puppets at the Fringe who are working in the same form, it seems that solo puppeteers need to up their game to catch up with this fast developing genre.