about
SUSPENSE 2011: Fri 28 Oct to Sun 6 Nov
Welcome to SUSPENSE London Puppetry Festival 2011 produced
by Little Angel Theatre. We were delighted by audience / criticalresponses to our first SUSPENSE in 2009 and
won a Fringe Report Award for Best Festival as well as being nominated for a
Peter Brook ‘Empty Space’ award.
SUSPENSE: London Puppetry Festival ‘09 was the first festival of puppetry to take place across London for over 25 years. All the work programmed in SUSPENSE is for adults. Over 10 days a range of performances, masterclasses and symposia take place at venues across the capital.
SUSPENSE is exploding the myths that currently surround puppetry in this country, proving that puppets aren’t just for kids. It showcases a diverse range of contemporary work from UK and international practitioners, bringing puppetry to new adult audiences.
This year, as Little Angel celebrates its 50th
anniversary, we are delighted to have 11 venues taking part and over 30
companies participating. New venues this year include The Roundhouse, The V and
A, Wiltons Music Hall and New Diorama . We have
international work fromIran, US, Georgia,
Austria and France alongside the most innovative UK
companies – all for adult audiences. There is a thread of ‘Puppetry and
Politics’ running through the festival and we will focussing on this with
amajor symposium alongside an Iranian
production of ‘The House of Bernarda Alba’ and a trilogy of pieces by OBIE
award winning US company Great Small Works formed by ex-members of radical activists
Bread and Puppet Theater. We also have
puppetry inspired workshops, talks, late-night cabaret, opera, dance and films.
Plenty to get your hands on !
SUSPENSE is a response to the current renaissance in the UK for
puppetry. It is exciting for us at Little Angel to now be witnessing such a
growing level of appreciation and application of the possibilities of this most
ancient of art-forms. As Adrian Kohler of Handspring (War Horse) recently said
‘Puppetry is not a fad. What we are witnessing is theatre discovering its lost
limb’
