This world premiere performance at Norwich Puppet Theatre was something of a curate’s egg.
The performance re-interprets the Greek myth of Persephone and her disappearance into the underworld through original music and puppetry, softening out some of the more unseemly aspects of the story for a younger audience.
The interaction of the staging with the music, and indeed the three musicians from the London Sinfonietta, is well-judged, with delicate emotions projected on to their simple forms.
It is a deliberately raw performance but it feels unfinished: Persephone is separated from her mother and eats the fruits of the underworld, but the storytelling stops before her return is commanded, creating the seasons.
Rather than starting the performance with two standalone musical performances – which while showcasing Helen Tunstall’s virtuoso harp were atonal abstract pieces that left younger audience members fidgety – it would have been good to see more time devoted to rounding off the story and further interplay between the drama and music.
