6:30pm Monday 29th June 2009
By Adrian Mullen
A FAMOUS fable with a modern flavour has propelled a budding director and puppeteer into the spotlight.
Using a mixture of rod and hand puppets, Bryony Cousins has put together a 30-minute show, which gives a contemporary edge to the Pied Piper of Hamelin story.
Performances of the old legend about the abduction of scores of children by a pipe-playing ratcatcher from the German town of Hamelin will be at Kendal’s Brewery Arts Centre on Sunday, July 12 (5.30pm) and Queen Katherine School on Thursday, July 16 (6pm) and Saturday, July 18 (5pm and 6.30pm).
Behind the characters of rats, villagers and town councillors are a cast of ten from the Kendal school’s year 11/12/13 students, as well as two other local stage talents Chloe Bryde and Sarah Brett in the creative team.
Bryony told me that there’s no dialogue in the show except for a narration by former QKS teacher Will Garnett of Robert Browning’s Pied Piper of Hamelin poem.
And the production is laced with new tunes put together by gifted young Kendal musician Ben Metzer.
Bryony, an ex-QKS student, said she was drawn to puppetry while doing her dissertation on character design for her drama and theatre studies degree at Royal Holloway, University of London.
“When you start looking into it, its absolutely fascinating.
“It relies on design being part of the storytelling process.
“There’s no limitations and you can create great characters.”
Bryony graduated with a first in 2008 and since has set up Orphaned Sock Puppet Group.
With Piper, Bryony explained that she wanted to do a puppetry piece on a larger scale than she’d produced before and said that the piece was constantly evolving with a six-minute taster well received at the QKS Arts Evening at the Brewery earlier in the year.
Suitable for adults and children from the age of seven, Bryony added that it was very difficult to describe the show.
Although, she summed it up perfectly in one sentence: “An imaginative version of a children’s classic brought to life with puppetry!”
Brewery box office 01539-725133.
Tickets for the QKS shows can be reserved at orphanedsock@gmail.com.
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