Pero

Published Monday 6 October 2008 at 12:40 by Nuala Calvi

The Unicorn’s autumn season opens with a visual and aural treat from acclaimed Dutch puppet company Speeltheater Holland.

Taking the book Pierrot, ou Les Secrets de la Nuit, by French philosopher Michel Tournier as its starting point, the play uses stock commedia dell-arte characters - Pierrot, Colombina and the foolish Harlequin - to tell a tale of unrequited love.

Pero, the shy baker, longs for the attentions of his next-door neighbour, a washerwoman who lives by day while he toils by night. But her head is turned by the new boy in town - a painter who seems far more colourful than her childhood sweetheart.

Speeltheater’s delightful pop-up book set has the puppets in veritable dolls houses, where washing machines whir, ovens appear to glow beneath the rising bread, and mice skuttle around the skirting boards.

Colombina’s fling is played out against Victorian-style cardboard cut-out scenery, with handpuppet doves and fish on strings, and there is a distinctly gothic aesthetic to the costumes and lighting.

Guus Ponsioen, the show’s writer and composer, performs its moody, folk-inspired soundtrack live on piano and vocals, with the help of Annemarie Maas’ piercing soprano and sultry sax.

Cast as the sun and moon - the reigning deities in the lovers’ opposing worlds, whose own complicated relationship is simultaneously untangled - the talented pair rather eclipse the puppet counterparts and their slight, if stylish, tale.