Our protagonist, Moses the cardboard puppet, describes himself as a ‘funny little puppet dancing on the table’, but this piece is so much more than that. Mesmerising puppetry from Blind Summit attempts to tell the biblical story of the last 12 hours of Moses’ life from Deuteronomy through a cardboard puppet standing on a table. Three puppeteers, who animate his every breath, manipulate this self-aware character collaboratively. This method of breathing is described in the piece, deconstructing the way in which the human movements of the puppet are created. Aptly, this section for me was one of the most stunning, and despite the distance being created between the physical movements of the puppet and psychological character, I couldn’t help but care for the piece of cardboard on the table. The technical ability of the puppeteers was precise, slick and fluid whilst still feeling spontaneous and improvised, which really exhibited the strong collaboration between them. This collaboration extends so that puppet and puppeteers seem to merge into one such that the visibility of the puppeteer was unimportant.
The deconstruction of the puppet dominated the performance much more than the biblical story of Moses, but to great effect. The open and informal relationship between the puppet and puppeteers and puppet and audience injected impulsive comedy into the piece. For example, one particularly funny moment was when ‘fixed point’ was being explored, resulting in Moses walking in the wind, running on a treadmill and floating about in space. Child’s play and exploration seemed to be at the heart of the puppetry whilst still hinting at deeper existential concerns about identity, place and time. Also, the comedic moments wouldn’t have been half as funny if the piece was not broken up by still moments of subtlety. A long pause, whilst the puppet caught his breath, hand to chin, offered a moment of reflection for the audience, which for me was just as enthralling as the preceding energetic scene. Pace was mastered well in the hour long performance. Despite all the tricks of puppetry Blind Summit had already exhibited, I still found myself amazed at the seemingly impossible puppetry during the end sequence.
After an hour of The Table, the cardboard puppet was replaced by another table, a briefcase full of white A4 paper and a fourth performer. This slightly disruptive change of scene awkwardly introduced the shorter companion piece. It was now time for some ‘French Puppetry’. The French puppetry (French because of the paper cigarettes in their mouths) used beautifully child-like free hand drawings to tell a ‘hit and run’ story. The paper flowed effortlessly through the air, emerging from the suitcase which the performers swooped upon in unison to unravel the story which had both a cinematic and cartoon comic book feel.
The fearless puppetry of Blind Summit cannot be faulted; it was effortless whilst grounded, funny yet moving, and definitely not to be missed.
