This is actually two shows, but performed by the same people: Nana Projects. Performed in the Ferst Centre, the stage is set up with a large projector screen flown from above, and three overhead projectors on tables downstage centre. Next to the tables are chairs, small ‘bins’, and some other paraphenalia (I really couldn’t see what it was).

The first presentation, Danny the Diver, is a non-verbal shadow puppetry (using overhead projectors; I’ll get into the details of this in a second) performance. The story revolves around Danny, an underwater diver. He’s lonely, and when he happens across a beautiful mermaid, he falls in love. But a big bad octopus turns up, and takes the mermaid hostage. Using a swordfish, Danny rescues the mermaid, and they swim off into the big blue ocean together. Whilst this sounds simplistic, the performance was far from it: two people sit at the three desks (that works out yes, because they sat on either end of the row of tables, and sharing the use of the middle one) and constantly swap and move each resulting frame of the shadow puppet animation.

I call it animation, because it is what I would imagine watching a live video-taping of a The Simpsons episode. If the puppeteers had been out of sight, I would not have even thought it was live: rather that it was a film. This is hardly an insult, as the hands of the puppeteers - whilst occasionally falting over the ‘animation’ cells - move so fast, I could not watch both the show and them at the same time. In the end, I gave up trying to figure out how they did it, when and who was doing what; I would have missed most of the action and storyline by doing so.

The puppets themselves consisted of cells, similar to what’s used in animation, with black silhouette figures for the characters and accents of scenery; and then they were coloured in at various places using lighting gel (I know this because it was mentioned before the show started). The great thing about the lighting gel is that they didn’t just have one colour here or there, they overlaid hues to create depth or texture. The best way I can describe it is like a comic book graphic, or a children’s book illustration, with that four-colour style. In fact, I can do you one better: check out one of their online videos at the bottom of this post for an example of what I mean (the video is From Out My Heart). Cells are removed, moved and added to one after the other, with thousands of cells making up the total show.

Lighting is simple: the three overhead projectors are hooked into some dimmers, which allows for a superb effect. When I’ve seen overhead projectors used before, it’s only been one onstage, which means you have to have long cells, and a very limited amount of animation available. Using three projectors on dimmers, one scene can fade out whilst the next comes in; or one scene can be overlapped with more detail (eg. Danny dreams about the mermaid, and the cloud of the dream appears and disappears; and then that cloud is also overlaid with appearing and disappearing imagery related to what Danny dreams about). This is what makes the whole performance more like a film than a live performance.

Their puppet design is simple, which matches their story and non-verbal telling of it. And yet there is a great complexity about it; I honestly wish I could watch them another three times just to figure out their mechanisms. Just when I think I’ve seen all their techniques, they pull out a trick that had me scratching my head. 

Musically, the show uses atmospheric and appropriate jazz/instrumentals, along with some occasional songs. It suited the mood greatly, and if it weren’t for the fact that I knew I’d have to mention it in my review, I wouldn’t have noticed it at all; it was that complementary and subtle to the performance.

Alonzo’s Lullaby is also of the same vein of puppetry, so I won’t re-explain all of the above. All you need to know really is that it was based on a real story about a circus driver falling asleep at the wheel and causing a large train accident, and ending in 61 people dead. The performance takes us through this and introduces us to various circus stereotype, before the tragic ending. Despite the beautiful puppetry and manipulation, I found this show verging on the "too long" side of things. 

Even with this, I have to say this is probably going to be a festival favourite for me: the audience loved it too, and they got a huge applaud, verging on standing ovation. I’d not only see Nana Projects again, I’d try and find a way to work with them and learn their techniques. I give this show the highest rating possible: