Land of the giants: where is our groundbreaking puppetry?

Peter Glanville, Artistic Director of Theatre Little Angel Puppet wonder if in danger of setting the content of programs

We are accustomed to seeing giant feats of engineering. After the remarkable elephant Sultan Royal de Luxe in London and Liverpool Wed Odyssey we saw Voldemort in the Olympic Games, Prometheus Despierta Grées, cycle Coventry Lady Godiva, Big Man Walking in Scotland. We saw many animals too large: war horses, the Lion of Rupert Goold's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and the Royal Opera House Cheshire Cat. All creations are wonderful, but if it where puppets are underway, we are in danger of putting too much emphasis on large, representative?

Reading this on your mobile? Click here to see the video

I'm not knocking any of these creations, and I am pleased that the puppets and puppeteers as do all our work. There seems to be a better appreciation of the skill and labor required to give inanimate life. I'm just not seeing the same level of advanced innovative work in the UK is happening in Russia, Poland and France, and I do not see enough new business formation puppet theater explores the possibilities the form and content. In my opinion, the most experimental work has been created by companies that have existed for at least 10 years optical fault (now Invisible Thread), Green Ginger, indefinite articles, and horse and bamboo Improbable.

This may be because the form is accepted as part of the range of theatrical creation. Are we so busy creating puppets for people like the National Theatre, the Theatre Royal, English National Opera, the Royal Shakespeare Company and Theatre de Complicite, we are in danger of losing our own identity? Maybe it is because you do not have a clear pedagogy. In one of the provocations of the angel puppet current Bulgarian puppeteer STRATIEVA Irena said that because of stringent training in Bulgaria, the puppeteer is more respected than the actor. Or is it simply a direct result of lack of funding and investment in puppets? Despite 51 years of presenting critically acclaimed performances and training opportunities, Little Angel Theatre is not a member of the National Organization of puppets.

If organizations like ours, puppet theater and puppets Norwich Centre receives no ongoing funding, what message does that send out?

What we are seeing is a resurgence of the use of puppets, but not necessarily in the puppet theater. The success of productions and events like the war horse, elephant Sultan, Madame Butterfly and Avenue Q have brought new audiences to the puppets and helped to dispel the myth that it is only for children. I'm just worried that we are so busy making giant animals outdoors in carefully crafted, directed and stage actor dramatic narrative are not sufficient in our own grotesque, irrational and ruled by puppets.