Nottingham city’s Puppet Festival has a jam-packed programme on. Venues across the city will be hosting events for the young and old alike, as puppet creations beyond your wildest dreams arrive here. Puppets will be setting up camp in the Old Market Square for 3 days, offering free performances , street theatre, live music, interactive installations and much more.
The Puppet Festival runs from 22nd to 25th March (Thursday to Sunday), kicking off at Clifton Library. Starting with a Pinocchio puppet-making workshop by Izzy Hollis, there are 3 more such workshops running over Thursday and Friday, at other libraries in Nottingham.
Birmingham Central Library will host Cardboard Carnival, the first performance and followed in the evening by a version of Sleeping Beauty in Nottingham lakeside Arts. Those seeing War Horse on Thursday night, get a post-show discussion too. Thursday too sees the talks programme starting at Theatre Royal with- Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Puppetry But Were Afraid To Ask.This is followed by a specialist talk on Digital Puppetry at Nottingham Trent University.
Friday has Puppetry:Disability and Health and Saturday has Writing for Puppetry. Free entertainment at Old Market Square is on Friday. Performances start at 10am, including Ola Muchin’s magic show. Also Mermarella has Cinderella retold underwater here.
Throughout the day there will be a mix of walkabouts and street theatre. National Videogames Foundation will show a large-scale interactive projection in the evening. Friday has a range of performances, like the Story of Mr B, The Parachute and The Luckiest Girl Alive.
The second day of the pop-up puppet village has Sarah Manton’s free workshop, in preparation for a performance later at City Arts Dome. There are also workshops with Graese, with their Iron Man metal giant on walkabout. The Kayu Gangsa orchestra will play for Kamrul Hussin’s shadow puppet performance.
Performing on Saturday, will be a new take on a Mr Punch adaptation, at the caves of Malt Cross. There’s a truly different performance late night, at Theatre Royal, of ‘puppet cabaret’. Two special events await fans at Broadway Cinema, with a Thunderbirds Are Go screening first and a Q&A session after it. The evening also offers the political satire ‘Spitting Image’ and a talk with those behind it.
On Sunday, the final day, there are more free events of performance and fun, interactive displays, at the Old Market Square. The festival’s grand finale is a Puppet Parade moving from City Arts, Hockley, to Old Market Square, with all kinds of characters, special guests, and live music and where everyone can join in.
Nottingham Puppet Festival is the result of partnership between City Arts with Theatre Royal and Nottingham Trent University, with funding of Arts Council England, supported by Midlands3City, Nottingham UNESCO City-of-Literature and Nottingham City Council.
