Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
It’s the idea that one could climb up a tree and go into another land, a fantasy. The Magic Faraway Tree is so fantastical, whereas a lot of Blyton’s stories are about real situations. Her stories fascinate us, I suppose, because they depict worlds in which children make their own rules, but not in the frightening way of Lord of the Flies.
What is its specific relevance to your work in puppet theatre?
It’s the idea that one could climb up a tree and go into another land, a fantasy. Well into our time as puppeteers, going from city to city, I [Basil] realised that I was living the life of these books that had been so important to me as a child. I realised that we would stay in one place for three days and then move onto another place, and in each place we would create a world. The Magic Faraway Tree was so fantastical, whereas a lot of Blyton’s stories were about real situations.
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Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler are founders of the cutting edge Handspring Puppet Company whose signature style involves puppeteers sharing the stage with their puppets, along the lines of Japanese Bunraku but adapted so that the puppeteers are not obscured but form an integral part of the action on stage. Their creations for the smash hit War Horse are stunning audiences this Christmas at the New London Theatre and will hit the Lincoln Centre in New York in 2011 after a European tour. Their production of Woyzeck on the Highveld is currently touring in Spain and France.
