Like a puppet on a string

FOR Mervyn Millar, the magic of puppetry isn’t conjured by the puppet, but the audience. ‘The puppet is clearly not alive, there’s no illusion—it’s a very honest invitation for members of the audience to imagine the character for themselves,’ explains the director of acclaimed puppetry company Significant Object. ‘When there’s a puppet on stage, it does something different to your engagement with the storytelling—it requires you to be active as you watch. The power of imagination manifested in the puppet is a lovely thing.’

A theatre director and puppetry specialist, Mr Millar has a long list of spectacular projects under his belt: from designing Newman, the robot that featured in the music video for Sir Paul McCartney’s single to depicting the god of marriage, Hymen, for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2019 production of . This enormous puppet measured almost 20ft high and 36ft wide.