Oxford and Cherwell College Performing Arts degree gives a foundation in theatre from all perspectives, from acting to publicity, administration to singing. This year they've selected as a final year play The Billy-Club Puppets, a lighthearted puppet show, written by Federico Garcia Lorca early in his career, and born out of his enthusiasm for traditional travelling theatre. The story is as simple as Punch and Judy: Rosita (Lolly Barker, veering between simpering and saucy) is desperately in love with the romantic and handsome Cocoliche. But her impoverished mother has promised her in marriage to the rich but disgusting Don Christobita (Jack Trewhalla, with an unpleasantly fragrant cigar and a pillow shoved up his shirt). To
complicate matters further, Rosita's old lover, Currito -- cross-dressing flair from Anna Eadle -- has chosen this moment to return to 'his' old town. Never quite deciding whether they're puppets, humans, or a mixture of both, the cast attack the play with props amusingly improvised from whatever was to hand and a flurry of different styles of music and movement, sometimes looking mechanical, at other times very human. The short but challenging scenes are interleaved with dances and set-pieces, in turn comedic, saucy and surreal. While Jamie Champion is picture-perfect as Cocoliche, a winning combination of good looks and passionate delivery, and Hannah Gray makes a decent job of the awkward thug/puppeteer role of Bella, some of the young actors occasionally get lost in the tangle of poetry and suggestiveness, and end up going for easy sight-gags instead, to the intense amusement of their friends in the audience. Look out for a riotous brawl scene where Bella's enormous club is used to knock aside plastic bottles of
'wine' (actually, clearly labelled mineral water) and great charm from Crystal Bhatti in one of the smaller roles.

Jeremy Dennis, 16.06.04