The Stage

The Devil and Mister Punch

Published Wednesday 8 February 2012 at 16:49 by Nuala Calvi

Marking the 350th anniversary of our most famous puppet, Improbable go back to Punch’s roots as a gleeful, horny, violent vaudevillian who takes as much pleasure in throwing his baby out the window as he does beating his long-suffering wife, Judy.

A scene from The Devil and Mr Punch at the Barbican Pit, London Photo: Kevin Monko

Long forgotten Punch characters, deemed too dark for its modern, child audience, are brought back out of the bag - the Devil, Punch’s mistress Pretty Polly, the hangman Kack Ketch and Toby the Dog (here a long-suffering hack forced to bash out the play’s script on a battered old typewriter) all perfectly carved and popping unexpectedly out of trap doors and picture frames in an ingenious panelled set.

But theirs is no simple throw-back - this sideshow is as much about the real-life puppet masters as it is about their puppets. Director Julian Crouch unearthed evidence that 19th century performers Harvey and Hovey performed Punch and Judy at the New York Armory, where Crouch has recently had a residency, and he weaves their own tale of frustrated ambition and fading glory into the proceedings.

While Punch faces the judge for triple murder, it’s the performing life that really seems to be in the dock here - one in which a man who confesses he hates puppets must live through them until he starts to feel he is, literally, becoming one, and who dies knowing that his characters will live on while he himself recedes into history.

Harvey and Hovey are brought vividly to life as Chaplin-esque characters with shabby tail-coats and moustaches, their faces apparently capable of an endless repertoire of over-sized expressions, while behind the scenes the puppeteers’ skill is so deft that the constant stream of visual jokes never once loses pace. This is a deliciously dark tribute to our oldest theatrical icon.