Twine

‘Tortoise in a Nutshell’ tell the story of a little string boy who is left out of things, so he goes off on an adventure of self-discovery and returns. When he gets back, he’s changed, and ends up changing the lives of those around him in the process. This is the core of this story which is framed in a rather nebulous frame story which introduces some comic characters, sets up a tea party, before launching into the main part of the action, and fizzles out towards the end, with both stories merging.The team of three young actors, musician and a puppeteer lead the audience through the plot they’ve brewed up. A tea party is about to take place. We’re invited, but the occasion is unclear. With not quite enough mad surrealism to be able to match the Mad Hatter’s, the enthusiasm and verve with which the cast throw themselves into the show saves it from matching Boston’s.The idea of brewing a story, and using the sensory aromas of different teas to conjure up different types of stories worked really well and more could have been done with this. The story of Twine was conjured up magically, and the play could have started here. The best bits were when bits of stories within Twine’s story were acted out. Suddenly the energy levels rose, the performances came alive. Twine was never really convincing as a character – and he could have stolen the show. Had the puppeteering skills been extended across the company, rather than being limited to one person, and more attention given to animating the puppet, the journey he took would have been more credible.Nevertheless, there was much to amuse and entertain … an inventive set, some dire French, rich music coaxed out of limited resources stretched to their limits, a wonderful crowd of comic characters who kept coming in at the wrong times and being sent off again eventually found their place as the audience for a paper puppet theatre show at the top of a tree. Although the company seem capable of producing it, there is currently not enough emotional or physical audience involvement to keep kids – or adults, for that matter – focused for an hour.