17 August 2010 Scotland on Sunday

House Cabaret

Puppet Lab review.

BUT let's keep that to ourselves, shall we? And let's not mention House Cabaret by Edinburgh's Puppet Lab, a show that takes place by appointment in your own flat, with improvised comedy in the living room, Indian dance in the dining room, catwalk fashions in the hall and a speech from Julius Caesar in the bath. Like the fascinating moment in Tim Crouch's The Author when music starts playing and the audience just talk among themselves, Running On Air and House Cabaret remind us that theatre can be as much about people coming together to share an experience as it is about the experience itself.

wishgatherers1

5 January 2009 The Guardian

Feet First review

Puppet Lab review.

IT'S not every show that sends you home with a duster, a cuddly rat and a certificate promising extreme optimism for the year ahead. Such is my haul from the Market of Optimism, a series of stalls trading in feel-good commodities purchased with 10 Neuro notes withdrawn (at no cost) from a human cash machine.

10 August 2009 The Guardian

Edinburgh Festival: Who is Watching Whom?

Blog comments on Supper. Puppet Lab review.

THE other day Lyn Gardner was wondering about who is watching whom on the Edinburgh Fringe. It's a question I've been aware of since last week when, having sat on the front row of the Assembly Hall, I was one of the people picked out as a comedic target by compere Jason Byrne. Very funny he was too, but by the time he'd paraded me twice across the stage, identified me as "The Journalist" and drawn attention to my new stripy T-shirt, it meant an audience of 750 people were left in no doubt about who I was and what my purpose was.

15 August 2006 The Scotsman

Ghost

By Judith Adams. Puppet Lab review.

THESE days, when so many of us are locked into our iPod cocoons, there's nothing odd about someone wandering the streets wearing headphones. Yet for the wearer, there's something strangely dislocating about listening to a play while everyone around you gets on with their lives. This is particularly the case in Ghost – the story of an artist-turned-engineer regretting the life he's left behind – which is enhanced by genuinely unsettling sound effects by Henrik Ekeus in Simon MacIntyre's production. Frequently, as you follow the arrows on the paving stones, stopping at intervals to hear more of the elliptical story, you are convinced someone is walking behind you. Turn around and there's no one there, just as there are not nearly as many children in the playground as you're sure you can hear. Such disorientating effects would be more powerful still if Adams's script had more connection with the cityscape than the occasional whiff of the sea, but it's a memorable event thanks to strong performances by Sandy Grierson and Deborah Arnott, excellent music by Conrad Ivitsky Molleson and subtle visual details left for you to discover along the route.

13 March 2006 Northings

EH6

By John Harvey. Puppet Lab review.

WHY does puppetry for adults sound like such an anomaly? There isn’t any other artform that we reserve exclusively for children, so why puppets? When there are so many long and honourable adult traditions in other countries, it's actually an anomaly that we don't do more of it here.

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