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Actor Clive Owen, Little Angel artistic director Peter Glanville and Royal Shakespeare Company associate director Gregory Doran at the launch of Suspense |
String in the tale! Owen helps launch puppet festival
PUPPET power is set to take over Islington, with the first adult puppetry festival for 25 years showcasing across five venues in the borough.
Pulling the strings behind the 10-day event is Peter Glanville, artistic director of the Little Angel Theatre, which counts among its fanbase Hollywood star Clive Owen.
Mr Glanville said the popularity of hard-hitting marionette shows for an adult audience was growing.
He said: “Historically, in Eastern Europe, particularly Czechoslovakia and Hungary, there has been more of a tradition of puppetry being held in high esteem and being well funded. In other countries, puppetry is up there with opera, but shows like War Horse and Avenue Q have done very well in London recently, so the popularity of puppetry is growing over here.”
Twenty-four companies will take part in the Suspense festival and there will be masterclasses in puppetry and symposia on the artform. Shows include The Brain, about the life of Albert Einstein, and an “object theatre piece”, in which household objects are put together to create models of human beings.
The Little Angel Theatre has been flying the puppetry flag ever since it opened in 1961. Though most of its shows are for children, it has been working to develop a bigger programme of productions aimed at adults.
Peter Glanville said Clive Owen, whose films include Sin City and Children of Men and who was at the Suspense press launch last week, is a major supporter of the theatre.
Venues hosting Suspense events are the Little Angel Theatre, Pleasance Theatre, The Nave, Jacksons Lane, The Rosemary Branch, The Puppet Theatre Barge and Central School of Speech & Drama.
The festival runs from October 30 to November 8. Visit www.suspensefestival.com |
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