What I liked
The puppetry and design are fantastic and I love the concept. The live music/sound was really well integrated and elevated the entire experience.
The timing and care to interact with the projections was obviously something that was well-rehearsed and mostly effective.
What I didn't like
I would love to have seen the screen used as a shadow screen more. There are fairly easy ways to “remove” an actors head via shadow play and to create these effects that were projected as faux shadow play. The physical puppets of the Buffalo and the Mouse were so fun and I was hoping the taste of it in the first story that I was hoping we would see more of them throughout, but everything soon became replaced by the projections.
I’d tighten up the show. The show felt like it reached an ending at an hour, then went on for another 30 minutes which had me glancing back to the fringe clock in the booth.
My overall impression
A great group of ideas and explorations on folk mythology by an energetic cast. The show boasts some good looking puppets and ideas, but they are not used to their full effect. A rough blend of storytelling, commedia, and clown that never seems to really find itself in the 90-minute run-time.
The show opens with promise with a variety of clever puppets and physical effects which gave me hope that I’d be seeing these used throughout. When similar opportunities arise later, the show resorts to projection effects to create the creatures rather than puppetry or shadow play.
