Acorn Puppets

Press, 15 January 1988, Page 4

Acorn Puppets

Acorn Puppets at the Rolleston Street Theatre, January 14 to 16 for the Fringe Festival. Running time 2 p.m. to 3.10 p.m. Reviewed by Elody Rathgen. Jonathon Acorn is a familiar figure at the Christchurch Fringe Festival and his contribution both as teacher and performer is always appreciated. This year he is joined by Debs Wallingford who plays Mrs Wibble Wobble. Ac.orn is very experienced and easily moves from one kind of perform-

ance to another. In this case he sings and plays, works his solo travelling puppet theatre, rides his unicycle, does his Oswald flea act, and makes magic with balloons. Debs Wallingford as Mrs Wibble Wobble establishes her character with the audience as they enter. The children enjoy her shape and antics. Her contribution to the show is lively if somewhat uncouth. While all the skills of /Acorn are still in evi'dence, I felt his perform-

ance lacked some precision. The dialogue with Mrs Wibble Wobble was often a little messy and over lapping. They need to tighten it up to keep its crispness. But both comfortably handled the spontaneous participation from the audience.

Even in quite hot conditions Acorn managed to arouse admiraton for his solo puppetry. He maintained control of at least four different puppets, various gadgets and a reasonably.sensible storyline. It was Obviously appreciated.