Curious Puppetry returns to Rosemary Branch and delves into explorations of the object and the ephemeral.

Curious Ganz is followed by a selection of experimental sketches newly created by some of the biggest names in puppetry to surprise, entrance and fuel the imagination!

Part One - 40mins

‍Curious Ganz

Part Two in three sketches - 30mins

The Carnival of the Animals inspired by cloud gazing... (CotA, directed by Toby Olié)

Paper Twist reveals life and change at every turn... (Steve Tiplady)

A Patch of the Quilt where shape and texture suggest conspiracy... (Peter O'Rourke)

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Curious Ganz

A scientist is born! From the very beginning of time our hero Ganz is Curious. Is the Earth flat? Are the stars fixed? How does metal hide in stone?
 His investigations and inventions bring him to the attention of Queen Lizzy the First, a fellow adventurer, if only she could escape her skirts...

Based on the true life of 16th century copper smelter Joachim Ganz. It's a celebration of the new, the strange, the brave and the curious, all told through design, table-top puppetry, music and a few words, and wildly based on the principles of alchemy.

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The Carnival of the Animals

The Carnival of the Animals comes to theatrical life as a troupe of puppeteers conjure a menagerie of animals in response to Camille Saint-Saëns’s famous musical suite.

This scratch performance inspired by cloud gazing is both equal parts improvised and planned, allowing the formation and existence of the animals to feel as delicate and ephemeral as the puppets themselves.

Director Toby Olié continues to explore the theatrical form he co-created with Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons: A Reimagining at Shakespeare’s Globe, bringing pictorial life to some of the world’s most recognisable pieces of music.