There are twists upon twists upon twists in this lively, good-natured puppet piece from Estonia's Nuku Theatre – the trick being that those twists are what shape sheets of white cloth into uncannily convincing human figures .
And, just as the four female puppeteers are nicely different in their own stage characters, so too are the cloth-people they fashion with such swift dexterity. Some are short and bulbous, others very tall and exceedingly lanky – it's all in the twisting and folding that these members of the Estonian State Puppet & Youth Theatre make look so artlessly easy. Child's play, in fact. And that playful sense of larking about, letting one's imagination invest objects with different identities, functions, even life, is what connects the various episodes that, as it were, unfold.
Taken simply at face value, there's much to enjoy and admire in the games of flirtation, power struggles and one-up-manship that are portrayed through the cunning body language that animates the puppets so persuasively. Props are few – mostly shoes, used to suggest gender or stylishness – but the vocalisings and chatterings help to colour in the various contexts. Just as well, really, because the English translations of the dialogue are (because of cloths dropping in from above) tucked away to one side. These not only tell a very nuanced story of mankind's evolution, of aspirations, his inevitable death and his life-affirming dreaming too, they also reveal chucklesome in-jokes and degrees of whimsy that didn't quite translate in the action, while the live percussionists' bursts of laughter were a clue that some witty improvisation was being twisted into the material as well.
HHH
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article