JOLT International Theatre Festival: The Book Crasher

The Book Crasher: A Boy Without a Story

String Theory Theatre

Cast:

Puppeteers - Elise Heaven

Actor/Musician - Samuel Blenkin

The Book Crasher is a story told through the art of puppets, and a journey in which one particular puppet, the main character, goes through to find which book he belongs to. The show is narrated with the help of Samuel Blenkin, who plays the Book Shops owners son, who now is the owner, and is going to close up the store after having no customers.

The story goes through the puppet boys journey in finding his story that he belongs to, meaning he goes through books in the store, and enters them, but finds no luck. One story used, The Twelve Huntsmen, I was not familiar with, but I still felt like I was going through this puppets journey with him, and still felt engaging.

The balance between humor and emotion is balanced perfectly, and felt really touched as the story was coming to a close, but this could not have been possibly without the talent that was being performed in front of us. Elise Heaven and Lottie Daws provide the movement to our main character, and do it so smoothly and slick, and it really draws your attention and grips you right throughout, really making you feel that you are apart of this special journey that this puppet is taking you along.

The set is absolutely beautifully decorated, as they have taken a small empty shop and changed it, only in a matter of days, to become a worn down bookstore, cluttered with books, and credit must been given to Jessica Gibbs for designing the shop, and providing the lighting throughout the piece, and Tobias Smith for Directing the whole piece. The minimal room for the audience to sit in also really gets you more engaged and drawn to the performances that are happening from all the actors on stage.

There is great potential for the show to go to a wider audience, and it would be a shame if our young puppet boy didn't get the chance to share his wonderful, beautiful telling story to kids and adults all across the country, and wider.

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