The promise of a spooky story or ghostly tale is enough to entice an audience on a cold autumnal evening, and the team behind The Paper Cinema did an eerily good job at bringing those stories to life. With stunning illustrations, seamless puppetry, and captivating music, this one-hour performance kept the audience at The North Wall Arts Centre engrossed and definitely a little spooked. Now more than ever, it feels like we need shows that bring out the child in us. I look for shows that allow me to escape from the mundane and open my mind to the possibility of magic and myth. The Paper Cinema brought out a childlike wonder in me and the varied audience that traversed the chilly Oxford streets to the theatre on Wednesday evening.

During this short but imaginative performance, the audience is shown a world not dissimilar to our own but tainted with a sinister edge. Tales are told through two-dimensional drawings, the work of illustrator and artistic director Nicholas Rawling, and paired with an electro-acoustic soundscape composed and performed by resident musical director Chris Reed.

With a Quentin Blake-esque artistic flurry, Rawling was able to create a cohesive set of characters, landscapes, and monsters. Folk tales from Cornwall with a humorous twist and iconic short stories including “ King Pest” by Edgar Allan Poe were brought to life in a dynamic and playful way. With Chris Reed’s jaunty music, performed live on guitar and aided by prerecorded soundscapes, you were sucked into the world of these eccentric characters. At multiple points throughout the performance, I found myself chuckling at the absurdity of the stories while conscious of their place in modern life. Stories, myths, and legends have been handed down for centuries through word of mouth, artwork, and music, so why shouldn’t we, in this modern era, include a technical element as well?

I was pleasantly surprised to see the puppeteers/artists on stage for the duration of the performance. Allowing the audience to see the work that goes into creating the visuals was just as impressive as watching the stories unfold on the big screen. The precision and perfect timing needed to create an air of foreboding, or express a character’s emotions, was spellbinding to watch. The evolution of theatre and art is amazing, but watching a show created with pen and paper, and a heaping spoonful of artistic talent, was refreshing. We often focus on the performances on stage and forget that endless hours of work and planning go into creating shows, but with The Paper Cinema, you had no choice but to acknowledge the team behind the work.

While the performance itself was charmingly whimsical, the atmosphere at The North Wall was slightly lacking. To bookend the show, it would have been nice to hear the low hum of folk music while the audience waited to enter the auditorium. I was sad to find no programme to accompany the performance and subsequently spent my night researching the company, their current works, and other projects (of which there are many) in hope of finding another venue to watch them again.

That being said, The Paper Cinema team have done a fantastic job of keeping alive the old tales that unite us and continue to haunt our dreams.