I noticed a flurry of searches on my blog recently for puppets from Philip Pullman’s trilogy His Dark Materials but only realized that there was a new production by Blind Summit Theatre when I read on Stitches and Glue that Paul Vincett was one of the makers of the new puppets, along with the puppet designer Nick Barnes, and Billy Achilleos.
I’m really excited by the exquisite aesthetic of these puppets. Take a look at the showreel slide show or the album of stills. They suggest the essence of the creatures with the simplest of lines – just beautiful!
Blind Summit Theatre was founded in 1997 by Nick Barnes and Mark Down to make new plays with puppets for adult audiences. His Dark Materials is on at Birmingham Rep: 13th March – 18th April; and then at the West Yorkshire Playhouse : 28th May – 20th June.
There is some great puppet making information on the Blind Summit site, too, though not specifically for this kind of puppet.
