Citizen Puppet

Here's what it looks like to put on over 30 shows in 18 years. Blind Summet's puppet theatre is more than just good to watch, it is wide awake with the benefits of time and experience: the company profit from having perfected the simple natures of their craft so well. 

Citizen Puppet comprises five puppet characters from small-town Scotland. Some read the Daily Mail and some take drugs for kicks, but all come together to regale a recent horror story from the village: the advent of a dead giant on their doorsteps (hint: cue the beanstalk). One of the locals takes selfies with the giant while others riff on the fact that, with fingers the size of buses, it's hard not to notice such a colossal intrusion on village life.

The show, we're told self-referentially by the puppets, is part intelligent verbatim comedy, part straightforward puppet show – take your pick. While the gags are good, and there are laugh-out-loud moments, Citizen Puppet doesn't soar like it might. It is an oddly linear—yes, with puppets, but still—retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk, the narrative largely collated via lots of monologues (if puppets are allowed those) rather than via clever fusions of inter-puppet chatter. We know this is a puppet show, so the emphasis may not be on character, but more thoughts and feelings would have been nice, instead of a factual, edited version of the classic fairy tale. Still, good fun.