Think puppetry’s just for kids? Think again, as Bristol’s world-class Festival of Puppetry returns. Steve Wright pulls the strings.

“The first Puppet Fest was all about putting Bristol’s world-class puppetry on the map. This time we wanted to invite the world to Bristol.” Chris Pirie, when not busy with Bristol’s brilliant puppet troupe Green Ginger, is one half of the team behind the Bristol Festival of Puppetry, which returns for its second instalment later this month after a triumphant 2009 debut. And, as Chris is explaining, Puppet Fest #2 takes a clear step from the local to the global.

“The first Festival was such a success, with 85-90% ticket sales across all shows. Everyone was asking, ‘when will you be back?’ and we thought, ‘right, let’s make this a biennial event’,” Chris continues. “The Bristol companies who were at that festival and involved in setting up Puppet Place [the engine room of Bristol’s thriving adult puppetry scene, based in an old warehouse on Spike Island] have been touring the world and making contacts with so many international companies, and this is our opportunity to invite those companies back.

“We could have taken the easy route and replicated the success of the first one but we wanted to take risks, push out into new areas. We have had great support from the Tobacco Factory [the festival takes place at the TF and its sister theatre, The Brewery], which just goes from strength to strength. They have a great team and two fantastic venues. They’ve trusted us to put a programme together, letting us get on with it and giving us support when we need it.”

Chris co-programmes BFoP with Rachel McNally of Bristol’s Full Beam Visual Theatre – and behind much of this year’s programme is the duo’s strong bond with Nordland Visual Theatre, based in the village of Stamsund, just inside the Arctic Circle in the far north of Norway. NVT, whose work merges elements from the visual arts, theatre, mime, dance, multimedia and, of course, puppetry, are celebrating their 20th birthday this year. “There has always been a strong connection between NVT and the Bristol puppetry scene, so we are thrilled to be part of their celebrations,” says Chris. Green Ginger and [fellow Bristolians] Pickled Image have both made work there, and the latter will premiere their latest show ‘Little Edie’ (Fri 26-Sat 27 Aug, 8pm), produced in association with NVT, at the festival. Pickled Image’s tale is inspired by the story of Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edie, aunt and first cousin to Jackie Kennedy, who lived in a crumbling mansion in The Hamptons surrounded by music and cats.

Elsewhere, in ‘The Seas of Organillo’ (Mon 29, 8pm), renowned UK puppeteer Stephen Mottram conjures up a world where strange puppets swim and wriggle their way through our deepest Freudian oceans, in an exploration of the mysteries of procreation. ‘Baby Universe’ (Wed 31, 8pm), the latest from admired NY puppet troupe Wakka Wakka, takes place sometime in the future, with our solar system scorched by an angry, dying sun and the last few remaining souls resorting to cannibalism. In amidst this end-of-days angst, a team of scientists are creating baby universes in the hope of birthing a planet that might support the entire population.

We’ve already booked ourselves in for ‘The Writer’ (Fri 2 Sept, 8pm), a co-production between Nordland, Dutch outfit Ulrike Quade Company and Norwegians Jo Stromgren Kompani, in which a researcher interviews a Nobel Prize-winning author accused of betraying his homeland – and, in a subtle and seductive way, draws forth the man behind the mask. ‘Schicklgruber, alias Adolf Hitler’ (Sat 3-Sun 4 Sept, 8pm), meanwhile, takes place in a Berlin bunker, among the forced merriment of the Führer’s 56th birthday party, as knowledge of the impending Nazi downfall hangs over the celebrants. The creator and performer of this dark little gem is Australian puppeteer Neville Tranter. “He’s phenomenal,” Chris enthuses. “No one else comes close to what he does. He holds the stage on his own, and creates this magical world that you completely buy into.”

A packed bill of family shows, meantime, includes offerings from an adaptation of much-loved children’s story ‘The Enormous Turnip’ by Stuff & Nonsense Theatre (Fri 26 Aug, 12pm/3pm/6pm), a ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ for ages 2+ by Bristol’s Soap Soup Theatre (Sat 27, 11am & 2pm) and a medley of Grimm Tales (Sun 28, 11am & 2pm) by veteran puppetry, mime and music mixers Lempen Puppet Theatre.

There’s also an exhibition of animation (or “puppetry’s first cousin”): ‘Morph vs Medusa’, a first-ever joint exhibition of work (models, storyboards and stills) by Oscar-winning animators Ray Harryhausen (‘Jason and The Argonauts’) and Bristol’s own Aardman, exploring both the early history of animation and current trends in the artform. “Harryhausen was a pioneer in integrating live and animated action on film, and has had a profound influence on today’s generation of film-makers including Peter Jackson, George Lucas and Aardman,” says Chris. “And Aardman is re-inventing stop-frame techniques using the latest materials and digital technologies.”

The kinds of shows programmed in this and the first Puppet Fest – and the output produced by companies like Green Ginger and Pickled Image – are often dark, absorbing, and blackly comical affairs, and puppetry seems curiously adept at highlighting the murkier aspects of human nature. Does puppetry move audiences in different ways than straight theatre? “I think people can be surprised by how moved they are by puppetry, be it laughter, tears or something more thoughtful,” Rachel reflects. “All good theatre provokes a reaction, and all good puppetry will do the same, even if the mechanics might be slightly different. That sense of surprise, of the uncanny, adds to the magic. And because audiences invest in this object, create their own story and character around it, they are creating as much as the performers, so that puppetry can be a slightly more intense experience than straight theatre.”

“It’s also a primal experience,” Chris adds. “We’re all puppeteers, we’ve all played with our action men, teddy bears, dolls, brought them to life, made them fight, dance, shag, whatever. So there’s a little bit of electricity that happens when, in the middle of a bit of straight theatre, some puppetry is introduced. You would imagine that the reverse is true, that it’s hard to suspend disbelief: but audiences have no problem with it.”

So this year’s Fest has a more international feel, but is Bristol still churning out as much world-class puppetry as it was two years ago? “Even more so,” says Rachel. “We’ve tried mindfully to support the emerging generation, not just via the festival but via platforms like Prototype [the Tobacco Factory’s work-in-progress nights], and the younger companies will be curating late-night cabaret stages at this year’s festival. One company, Wattle and Daub, moved to Bristol because of Puppet Place and the first festival – Bristol is seen much more widely as the centre for puppetry.” Chris: “As the established artists, we’re now going, ‘oh shit, these emerging artists are all quite good!”

BRISTOL FESTIVAL OF PUPPETRY TOOK PLACE AT THE TOBACCO FACTORY, BREWERY AND ELSEWHERE FROM 26 AUG-4 SEPT. FFI: WWW.PUPPETPLACE.ORG/FESTIVAL FOR VENUE'S REVIEWS CLICK HERE (THE WRITER) AND HERE (SCHICKLGRUBER).

Copyright Steve Wright 2011