Ivan is not a slug. He’s a man who’s a bit sluggish, and greedy (not a trait traditionally associated with invertebrates, but there you go). This is explained to us by the puppeteer in person.
Like many good puppeteers, he seems self-conscious when on stage himself. In this case, attempting to explain metaphorical anthropomorphism to seven-year-olds, he’s right to.
What follows is a rambling, clunky hand-puppet show following Ivan’s money-wasting adventures. Richard Medrington’s wonderfully plush proscenium puppet theatre sits oddly on the Netherbow’s proscenium stage and the ill-considered audience participation doesn’t make it past this double remove. It’s not enough to ask the audience questions if the answers have no consequence on the story – today, both adults and children voted for Ivan to be punished for wrongdoing, but because the story doesn’t go that way, we are overruled by the puppeteer, so why ask?
This is one aspect of the essential inconsequentiality of the story. Nominally for large stakes, these are immediately downplayed. Lost £10million? Not to worry, the king can easily spare it. Similarly, there’s no logic to anything that occurs, so there’s no narrative satisfaction, just a series of incidents. Individual scenes are repetitive – not in the time-honoured sense of ritualistic story-patterns, but in the sense that the puppets keep making decisions, arguing about them, cancelling them out and re-making them, in absence of actually doing anything. When puppets, who have the power to do anything, indulge in this sort of time-wasting behaviour, it’s very uninspiring.
Very young children may be captivated (or possibly terrified, as with one child today) by the funny puppets and voices, but judging from the inattention and reluctant participation of the children in today’s audience, anyone over five will want to take Ivan with a pinch of salt.
2/5
Hugh Jones
