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This sweet and imaginative puppet show is a collaboration between the Little Angel Theatre and Kneehigh, and it returns to this cosy Islington venue for a festive run five years after it first premiered there as part of the venue’s fiftieth-anniversary celebrations. Based on a Gabriel García Márquez short story, the comic and quietly thoughtful ‘A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings’ is aimed at a slightly older audience than some Little Angel shows (and so under-fives are not allowed) but it still demands that adults bring along an open, childlike view of the world.
Offering no big bangs or easy gags (although the production finds room for a brief Donald Trump dig), ‘A Very Old Man…’ is a wry parable about the effect of a winged old man suddenly appearing in a sleepy fishing village. Is it a miracle? Or a curse? His arrival rids the village of a plague of crabs and heals a sick child. But what about all the tourists that now turn up to gawp? How much of a blessing are they?
This warm, understated show throws a spotlight on one of the things that makes this theatre so special: how it’s a family affair. It’s designed by the theatre’s co-founder Lyndie Wright, with the puppetry directed by her daughter Sarah and the original storyboarding by her son Joe (the director of films including ‘Atonement’), whose wife Anoushka Shankar (daughter of Ravi) contributes to the music. The storytelling is gentle and imaginative, and the craft is careful and old-fashioned. The lively puppeteers bring a dose of anarchic energy to a slightly sleepy tale that offers few fireworks but plenty of special moments.