Paperhand Puppet Intervention brings its traditional style of expertly crafted puppets and tales to the Forest Theatre with its latest show, “The Living Sea of Memory.”
Divided into four chapters, the show includes two origin stories, a new spin on a knight’s quest and a collection of family memories.
The best part of the show is the ornate puppets, including a swirling sea goddess with segmented body who morphs into an angry dragon.
Larger than life gods dance across the stage while a giant earth goddess winds through their midst in the first act, flashing bright reds, oranges and yellows.
These puppets are not the kind from childhood camps, made from someone’s sock and googly eyes. Paperhand’s puppets include stilt-walkers, puppeteers wearing puppet masks and expertly done shadow puppets.
Co-creator and co-director Donovan Zimmerman said it took two months to create the puppets.
“It’s basically a giant puppetry pageant that is a synergistic explosion of different art forms,” he said.
The group adapts traditional tales for their show, creates the puppets and sets and also composes original music for the show.
The last section recounts a Mayan creation myth with shadow puppets as vivid as the brightly painted scenes from earlier in the show.
