Asian countries with a strong puppet tradition, such as Indonesia, Japan and China, have for some years worked on a modern approach to their theatre, but have found the international demand for their traditional shows a heavy drag on new creations. Yeung Fai has found a highly intelligent way to shake off the cobwebby aspects […]

British stalwarts Stan’s Cafe’s latest work mines a range of familiar comic theatrical tropes: the backstage action revealed, the deconstruction of well-known tales, and amateurs staging a performance. In The Cardinals the company set three red-robed cardinals the task of staging the (hi)story of the Holy Land, from Genesis to modern day Jerusalem. Inside a […]

Unlike most Derevo shows, Harlekin is not a large ensemble work, but it still has the chaotically creative inventiveness we have come to expect from the company, as well as the stunning visual imagery and blood-pumping soundscore composed by long-time collaborator Daniel Williams. Anton Adasinsky’s Harlekin is more of a Petrushka type character, forever beguiled […]

  A popcorn machine, indeed – the popped corn littering the stage, the smell of burnt oil and singed corn filling the room. Not only, but also: a wonky honky-tonk piano, whirring fan wobbling atop, dry ice puffing out from below; a trunk-load of dismembered mannequins, hands and feet and heads juggled and rolled; a […]