Blind Summit Knows How to Pull Strings

If you think you’re too old for puppets, Blind Summit Theatre will make you feel like a kid again.

Do you create the voice as you build the puppets?
We make the puppet first, then discover the voice in rehearsals. It’s impossible to know the puppet until it is finished. Sometimes they need recasting before we find the voice.

If someone damaged one of your puppets, would you go crazy?
Puppets are working things and they break during rehearsals and performances – that is part of the deal. I go more crazy when the puppets are not properly credited.

What’s the best compliment you’ve ever gotten?
Someone came to see our show, Mr. China’s Son, about a man from Dali in Yunnan province, and they were then inspired to go and visit him in China.

What was the first puppet you ever made?
I made a puppet out of a green woolly sock, I think, with button eyes. I guess it was a crocodile.

Who do you most want to make a puppet of?
Tom Cruise.

What size do you prefer: gigantic Olympic puppets or tiny ones?
I like them all - every puppet has a size that’s right for them.

Do you name all of your puppets?
They get their names organically. They seem to have their own names - some have names like ‘The Brown Man’, others find proper, human names, like ‘Kevin’.

Which one is your favourite?
Moses.

Who’s the best puppet in the history of the world?
Basil Brush.

Catch Blind Summit at Beijing Pioneer Theater on Oct 23-28 as part of the UK Now Festival.

Click here to see the October issue of the Beijinger in full.