Waltz of the Hommelettes | London Theatre: Stagedoor

Recommended by

10 January 2019 · Follow on Stagedoor

“You can always bet on the London International Mime Festival to come up with shows that sound like curiosities and turn out to be masterpieces. This fantastical cabinet of curiosities could be it for this year’s festival. Created by Patrick Sims, co-founder of Buchinger’s Boot Marionettes, it is set in a world where a giant cuckoo clock controls events, there is a musket-toting rabbit and a bird who spins wool. This dark fairy-tale sounds deliciously bizarre.”

Overview

In this magical cabinet of curiosities, with hints of Alice in Wonderland and Brothers Grimm, events are controlled by a giant, Black Forest cuckoo clock, supernatural in its keeping of time.

A shoemaker, a mother bird who spins wool and a menacing, musket-toting rabbit are the protagonists in three interwoven tales filled with striking imagery, surprises, twists and turns. When the clock strikes thirteen, elves and goblins appear from its mechanical gears and wheels. They manipulate time and rearrange the notion of natural order so that humans are no longer in charge. Then the fun begins.

Artistic Director Patrick Sims, co-founder of both Buchinger’s Boot Marionettes and Les Antliaclastes, uses masked performers, extraordinary music and sound, automatons and sculptural puppets to achieve his fantastical universe. An eerily delightful folklorish adventure, Waltz of the Hommelettes is faithful to the child logic, adult hypocrisy, cruelty and humour of traditional fairytales.

Age recommendation: 7+

Critic reviews

Les Antliaclastes’ puppet show is a bewitching ride through the dark side of fairytales with close attention to detail

⋅ The Guardian

Maybe the Hommelettes should be an installation; then its charm and style could be enjoyed at length, and not forgotten in due course to the goblin-less, rabbit-less charmlessness of real life

Broadway World

Imaginatively sinister

⋅ The Stage