Delving deep: Ronnie Burkett's marionettes

An artform that appeared to have been handed its P45 by the birth of animation, puppetry and marionettes gets something of a rough ride in the credibility stakes.

Putting the form back on the map is marionettist Ronnie Burkett, who hails from Canada and wowed audiences at last year's Brighton Festival with his Street Of Blood.

Happy is his current production and is about a "happy-go-lucky" veteran and pensioner who wanders through episodes of grief in other people's lives.

If that sounds grim, hold on. This is a poignant little tale about how some people manage to be happy and shrug misery aside, while others become swamped by it and find the future impossible.

Drawn out through a mixture of monologue, dialogue and surreal chorus, it gradually comes together into a weird, if unforgiving, piece that raises questions about the power of memory to heal and imprison.

Flooding this centuries-old tradition with new life, there's no box-set but instead a four-sided Welsh dresser where Burkett stands in an apron and jeans among his puppets, quite visible, pulling strings.

The puppet don't look like puppets, they look like real people. Their faces are so expressive, so exquisitely carved, it's hard to believe they're not moving.

In some scenes, just a hand-held wooden head communicates all that needs to be known.

Constantly challenging the reach of the medium, Burkett takes Happy's big-hearted wooden cast deep into the human psyche, his little puppets acting as miraculous vessels for immense adult themes.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
More full reviews