GIANT!

Puppet Designer, Maker, and Performer 2023

Giant! was a medieval puppet show for children and families. An evil lord rules over the land, exploiting the people and the land. A hopeless Jester leads a peasant revolt against the lord, to save the giant and their home.

I played The Jester who led each scene, and could only talk through their puppet staff, and I was part of the ‘Fayre’ team designing and making puppets for the final scene.

Directed by Lucy Hall and Dik Downey

The Old Library - 2023

Created by BA1, BA2, MA1 Design for Performance students at RWCMD

Photography by Kirstan McTernan

Process

‘The Fayre’

Jester’s Hand Puppets

Designed and made by Robin O’Connor Lowe and Isabel Minion Craggs

The Jester put on a puppet show at his fayre. We designed the puppets to look like they were made by the Jester themself, so quite messy.

Inspired by both traditional hand puppet shows and medieval folk creatures we created these hand puppets made from scrap material. The Jester Punch puppet is made from leftover fabric from the Jester costume.

The Cartwheeling Blemmyes

Original Design by Eleanor Rogers. Made by Robin O’Connor Lowe

These puppets were based off medieval mythical ‘Blemmyes’ as well as old fashioned children’s games of a hoop and stick. They cartwheeled on and off between ‘acts’ at the Jester’s Fayre. They were made by carving blue foam, and rendered with dust sheet scrim and acrylic paint. They spun around on a bearing attached to recycled pipe, with their hula hoop matching the Jester’s colours.