Venus and Adonis - REVIEW

Swan Theatre
March 2007

Although I am not normally a fan of puppets (yes, I’ll admit, they scare me!), there is an exquisite beauty about the puppets of Venus and Adonis.

A joint collaboration between Little Angel Theatre in London and the RSC, Venus and Adonis is a little known Shakespeare poem. Often described as his erotic poem, it tells the story of Love (Venus) and her obsession with a beautiful youth Adonis. Although a range of puppets were used, the most common were table top puppets.

It was an uplifting performance of this little read / performed poem. Live narration by Harriet Walter was ably supported by live guitar and the puppeteers themselves.

It was the puppeteers I was fascinated by – when I remembered that they were there. Their choreography was a performance in itself, as at times there were three people operating one puppet.

Aside from the Venus and Adonis puppets, other characters included frisky horses, a rabbit, a boar, and death (a spectacular revelation that made everyone gasp).

The most wondrous moments were when I forgot that they were not human. I wanted so much for the arrogant Adonis to fall under Venus’s romantic spell, and was in turn spellbound when he did.

Their initial kiss, where first a foot, then legs, torso and heads ended up floating, mouths entwined, was the high point of the night and was met with a communal delighted sigh from the audience.

When I caught myself wondering “how on earth did they do that”, I realised that I had forgotten they were puppets and had really fallen under the enchanting spell that the production created.