But you said there would be puppies!

Oh, right. Puppets...

The Post's first visit to Norwich Puppet Theatre yesterday to see Indigo Moon Theatre's production of "Aladdin". Some top quality design work in the shadow puppets and settings and a lot of hard work for a lone puppeteer handling all the characters and doing all the voices in a 50 minute performance, but... unfortunately it was one of those shows that had me looking at the architecture of the converted church that houses the theatre, the lighting rig and my watch for increasing periods from about 20 minutes in.

A shame, as anyone who has seen shadow puppetry will know what a magical experience it can be, but the pantomime-like performance style of this piece seemed to work against the medium. With a  tighter text, fewer (ideally no) attempts at playing for cheap laughs via topical references, less gratuitous audience interaction and more work on vocal control and developing a variety of character voices the piece might begin to come together. Still, I believe it's early days for this tour, so it may yet happen. In the meantime, it has the feel of an opportunity missed.

But maybe my experience of the show was unfairly coloured by the theatre's poor sight lines and the front-of-house staff sitting directly behind me chattering throughout the show, because apart from all that I quite enjoyed it.