the puppets of The Mare’s Tale

Back in February at the first production meeting for The Mare’s Tale, the notion of puppets was discussed as a means to visually express some of the ideas that would be explored in the libretto and the music. Work began on them while we awaited Damian Walford Davies’s text and Mark Bowden’s score.  Now, with both complete, the project is fast moving toward rehearsals, and I’m preparing the last few puppets for the production. Ann Prior and Diana Ford will be bringing them to on-stage life. At last the ideas of artist, librettist, composer and conductor/producer will be coming together to form a new narrated chamber work performed by Eric Roberts and the musicians of the Mid Wales Chamber Orchestra under the baton of James Slater. This has been quite an adventure.

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Above: Mari Lwyd Mk I

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Below: Mari Lwyd Mk II, reconfigured after a filmed test

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Above and below: portraits of the most recent puppet added to the cast.

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Above and below: Mari Lwyd  maquettes that will be operated as both rod puppets and stop-motion animations.

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Above: I don’t yet have a good image of the ‘transparent’ Mari Lwyd puppet, and so this snapshot taken with a lot of clutter behind it must suffice. Just visible behind the Mari is an original shadow-puppet design by the great Jan Svankmejer.

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