9:40am Friday 20th August 2010
By Will Gore
For 25 years the Puppet Barge has been sailing down the Thames from its regular mooring in Little Venice to take up residency on Richmond riverside, writes Will Gore.
This year’s season of shows is already well underway with a successful run of The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse just coming to an end.
Next to get the puppet treatment will be a selection of Aesop’s fables and a Shakespeare classic, with both shows featuring hand-carved marionettes.
The Hare and the Tortoise and other tales from Aesop opened at the barge this week with matinee performances taking place on various dates until October 3, and this will be joined on the programme by a new version of The Tempest, which is aimed at adults and young people, which opens on August 28.
Juliet Rogers, who runs the Puppet Barge with Gren Middleton, says choosing which shows to do is a tricky process but she is hopeful the decision to stage The Hare and the Tortoise will appeal to the young and old alike.
She says: “You think over the years about the shows that you would like to do – it is such an all consuming thing that you have to choose very carefully.
“Aesop’s tales are so good – I think that is why they have lasted.
“They are really clever, with all of these little twists of human behaviour put into an animal context, and are just as entertaining for adults as they are for children.”
Rogers will be appearing in The Tempest, the third Shakespeare production staged on the barge after previous stagings of Macbeth and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Rogers and Middleton founded Movingstage, their touring puppet company in 1979 before moving into their specially adapted, 55-seater barge in 1982.
It’s a unique and enchanting venue and, whether you are a regular or a first time visitor, you would be well advised to climb aboard.
The Tempest, various dates from August 28 - October 2, The Hare and the Tortoise and other tales, various dates until October 3, The Puppet Barge, 83 Petersham Road, Richmond, (on the Thames by Terrace Gardens), 020 7249 6876
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