Striking scenes from abstract triptych in Puppet Origin Stories

A wilfully abstract triptych of stories that make up the third edition of Puppet Origin Stories will frustrate the theatregoer in search of meaning, but delight those who can surrender to the weird and affecting visual scenes crafted on stage.

- Shawn Hoo

The work is set in various venues around One-Two-Six Cairnhill Arts Centre, which has a storied history up to its current incarnation as an arts housing venue. Audiences are split into two groups and experience the stories in a different order.

It is not quite the epic scale of walking theatre Four Horse Road - first staged in 2018 - but leans in well into its site-specificity.

The toughest act to sell is theatremaker Edith Podesta's Murder Of Crows, whose textual virtuosity it is spoken in the poetic form of a cento - obfuscates what is going on on stage with two crows and a lark. Still, the textual black hole productively generates an ominous atmosphere in this haunting mood piece.

Motifs of structures resembling crow traps recur throughout the piece and human figures manifest through shadow play and overhead projections. Performers Ang Hui Bin, Jo Kwek and Koh Wan Ching valiantly move through the dense thickets of the script and strike some powerful tableaus through the piece.