Being a fan of the art of puppetry, it was with some excitement that I approached this afternoon’s performance of The Greatest Liar In All The World. Being a supposed sequel to the famous Pinocchio tale, I looked forward to a similarly dark journey infused with strange characters and a magical air. And for the most part, this is exactly what I got.
The great liar has become tired of lying and decides to hold his travelling carnival at gunpoint in order to tell the story of his origins. He tells of being born a boy made of wood, his encounters with danger as he grew older, and a magical lady in blue who was always there to steer him in the right direction.
When this show first started I have to say that I was less than impressed. It came across as a little pretentious and the kind of clowning around that you’d get from first-year drama students high on sugar and two for one alcho-pops. However, as time moves on we soon realise that this isn’t the show that we initially feared. The puppets creep in from the darkness, the clowning turns to creepy characters and the story goes from unexpected turn to unexpected turn.
This is also, I must stress, an extremely funny show, if in an extraordinarily dark sort of way. On more than one occasion the audience both gasped and laughed at the same time, both at the sparky dialogue and the imagery created by some remarkable puppetry.
The cast are clearly remarkably talented and bring a manic whirlwind quality to the stage that is hypnotic and unstoppable. It can be a little frightening at times, but you can’t help but admire their qualities.
Brilliantly bizarre, fiendish and very funny this is one magical nightmare that you’ll never want to wake up from. Pure brilliance.
Til 25 August, 12.40pm