FOLLOWING their successful 2006 show Haozkla, Edinburgh-based company Pangolin's Teatime return with their trademark puppetry and imaginative storytelling. It's another lovely piece that here uses gauze to surround the audience, behind which the cast manoeuvre their jungle animal puppets. The result is a feeling of being surrounded from all sides by charming little (and some quite large) characters.
There are Horatio and Clarence, two restaurant-loving bears who are plotting to eat the ethereal Dhala, a Mowgli-esque feral child raised in the jungle; Mango ferrets charged with delivering the bears' nuts; and, of course, the Last Yak, a god-like creature ("Aslan with Horns") who lives at the top of the mountain and is worshipped by all the others.
Dhala is especially well-crafted, and puppeteer/performer Ishbel McFarlane captures her innocent nature with haunting accuracy. Dhala communicates through words with the animals and through noises with villagers Lucinda and Raymond, who discover her and take her in.
Raymond becomes obsessed with introducing Dhala into civilisation, while Lucinda broods on her father's recent death. Meanwhile, the bears plot to overthrow Tiger, their leader, by persuading everyone the mysterious Yak is a mute cow they've found. It's a concept that touches of the notion of false idols and the corruption of religious power, while the Yak's demise also brings in environmental themes.
Initially, the show feels perfectly suited to a family audience. However, some of the later scenes – in particular the death of the Yak and Tiger – may be a bit upsetting for children and those who struggle with the harsh realities of the natural world.
The story shifts focus towards the end, veering away from the bears and their plotting, in a way that isn't wholly satisfying. Since the bears spend so much of the play planning to eat Dhala, it would have been nice to see them eventually try to do this. Instead the dying Yak becomes the means through which Lucinda can finally grieve for her dead father – a storyline that really needs to feature more throughout in order for this to work.
However, this could well still bring a tear to the eye – and that's not something a puppet show often manages to do.
