Arts Festivals

Although we specialise in primary school performances, Ireland’s travelling marionette theatre also performs at arts festivals and at Office of Public Works (OPW) venues. This continues the tradition of Irish puppetry as a form of theatrical expression dating back to before 1635, when the Viscount Dungarvan’s household accounts recorded: “Given i6˚ by your Lordship’s direccon [direction] to the poppit players”.

Given the complexity of working with marionettes (string puppets), this form of puppetry is not commonplace. There is something distinctive about the illusion of life that these inanimate characters portray that is not experienced with other types of performance.