Mouche

The masterful Tim Redpath uses puppets to express himself in the confusingly beautiful Mouche. Image found via Google.

The poster read:

A charming story of love, hate and suicidal puppets.

Wait... what? Suicidal puppets? It was intriguing. Intriguing enough to make us want to watch it. The fact that the show had won International awards was a contributing factor, the fact that it was at the Masonic Hall up the road was another, but it was the suicidal puppets that captured our attention. Before we saw the poster, we had never even heard of the show, probably wouldn't have heard of it if it hadn't been for the poster.

As we made our way to the Masonic Hall (we actually drove there despite it being around the corner - it was THAT cold last night), our hopes were high. They were raised even further when we entered the hall to find it completely packed, people being turned away from the door after being informed that the show was sold out. Sold out shows are always a good sign - it means that they have been getting rave reviews in the Cue and good word of mouth. Or perhaps other people saw the posters scattered around town and were as intrigued as we were.

We piled into the small hall, Natasha and I pushing our way to the front to ensure that we got good seats this time around - there is nothing quite so terrible as going to a wonderful show and not being able to see a thing. The lights dimmed, the typical reminders of no cellphones and no photography were made, and a spotlight hit the stage and landed on a box in the centre of it. "Capitaine Coq et sa famile" the box read, and in the corner was a sign indicating that we were supposed to be in Paris. A man entered, a puppet attached to his hand, and the play began.

At first, I was very confused. Who was supposed to be who? One man was portraying at least 8 different characters, at least five of them puppets, and all of these characters were talking to or about Mouche - the title character of the show, whose story is engrained in the audience's mind, but who is never seen. However, using various accents and physical traits, Tim Redpath (the creator and only actor of the show) separates the characters and makes them easy for the audience to recognise - from the French puppeteer Michel, both as a boy and a man, to the hunchbacked assistant Jacques, to the Spanish acrobat who tries to steal Mouche's heart.

Slowly the storyline started emerges as the audience begins to relate to characters and becomes accustomed to the accents. Slowly the audience starts to relate to Michel, the young boy whose family is taken from him and who is caught in the middle of and affected by war and the puppeteer whose personality is divided between the puppets that he controls. Slowly they start to understand the relationship between this broken man and the broken woman, Mouche, whom he rescues from suicide at the beginning of the play. By the end, I was practically in tears.

I would tell you that Mouche is a show that you need to see. I would tell you that it is up there with London Road and Love at First Fight as one of the best shows that I have seen this fest. But I actually don't think that there's much point. I think that this show will be sold out for every single one of its final shows.