Last Friday night went to see a puppet show called Low Life. It was inspired by a collection of short stories set in a dingy bar, but rather than being puppet theatre, really it was more puppet ballet, with a healthy dose of comedy – their humour quite happily (and often very cleverly) made fun of puppetry.

I say puppet ballet, because much of the show was really more like ‘ballets’ – dynamic physical movement sequences which showcased the skill of the puppeteers. Four actor/puppeteers were involved in the show, and as well as being puppeteers (the puppets were not of the kind controlled by strings as in Being John Malkovich – which you ought to go and see if you haven’t, really the trippiest movie ever – but needed more than one pair of hands to move the arms and legs and head), they were also characters in the little stories. Which worked really well with some of them (particularly the first one where alcoholic might possibly be imagining that his glass is moving, escaping, dodging him).

The best ’stories’ were incredibly clever and funny - the undersized plumber doing amazing stunts to the Mission Impossible theme song, and the little blue men in their version of an old-fashioned gangster/detective movie. I laughed so much my face hurt.

The worst thing – not being able to tell other people to see it, as they did their last show last night. Robert today said he would’ve liked to have gone, if he’d known about it earlier. On Friday afternoon Lucy said she would’ve liked to as well, but was going to be away on the weekend. 

So if Low Life ever comes to a town near you, make sure you see it!