Blind Summit @ Latitude Festival 2015: Citizen Puppet

Blind Summit did their 'first professional performance' of this show at Latitude Festival near Ipswich, which I was lucky enough to go to. They presented a parade of realistically portrayed individual puppets, with characters so three dimensional that they broke the fourth wall and made fun of the way puppets are often portrayed as silly, simple, uncomplicated characters.

Puppets for 'Citizen Puppet' in the Blind Summit workshop.

Suki (left) and Tina (right) expressing their digust.

The show was a very contemporary interpretation of 'Jack and the Beanstalk', with there being no Jack, or beanstalk. The story followed the residents of a run-down town called 'Massiveville', and their shock and trepidation the day that the giant from up the beanstalk fell, dead, across their town. Their recollections had a charming realism from them, from the descriptions of the giant's leg lifelessly blocking everyone down the centre of the high street, to the awful traffic backed up around the town and disrupting their day-to-day lives.
Blind Summit challenge traditional puppetry values and transform puppet shows into a platform for adults to enjoy. By presenting 'Citizen Puppet' as a docudrama based entirely on verbatim from the characters, they turned a silly, light hearted children's tale into a very believable and surprisingly tangible collection of the struggles and experiences of the characters.

The puppeteers seemed to 'melt' away
during the performance.

The set of the show was nonexistent, relying on the sheer presence of the characters to provide atmosphere. The puppets sat atop tall benches, chairs and wheelchairs, allowing the puppeteers to freely operate them and avoiding the 'floating puppet' issue. These benches helped set the mood for the town as well - it really was reminiscent of the likes of a dodgy park in the middle of Maidstone or some other exceedingly average British town. The way this production was prevented was completely unexpected; the entire show was fantastically observed and was a huge highlight of the festival.