Welcome to Puppetsville

Bright and silly, Welcome to Puppetsville delivers a mixture of slapstick humour and gentle life lessons that keep both children and adults engaged from start to finish. The audience are welcomed to the theatre by the three puppets, Lesley, Wesley and Jack, in a tableau of cheesy grins which amused my children from the outset. However, their simple world is soon turned upside down by the arrival of Dr Smellysocks, everything you would imagine in the arch-nemesis of a puppet to be, who disrupts their games by pressing the ‘Pubinator’ button, causing the puppets to enter puberty.

Beneath its playful exterior, the show explores the ups and downs of friendship and the challenges children face when navigating life’s changes. Puberty manifested differently in each of the puppets - Jack became smelly, Lesley had mood swings and Wesley developed a huge boil - and my own children came away talking about how puberty is an individual experience, and how friends need to support each other. It seems that the actors struck exactly the right tone of clear messaging younger children and the story is told with humour and wit. It’s easy to imagine this piece continuing its theatrical journey as a Theatre in Education (TIE) production, touring schools and community venues introducing talking points to an even wider audience.

High points include Wesley’s big song which was delivered with dramatic flair and delightful parody of preteens everywhere (I know, I have one), and the ridiculous selection of buttons which fall from Dr Smellysocks bag (the pigeonator??). Special credit is due to the stagehand who, garbed in black from head to toe, still moved furniture and props with attitude and character, impressive given his faceless anonymity.

Welcome to Puppetsville is a delightful mix of silliness and genuinely thoughtful storytelling, addressing what is possibly life’s first big moment, in a manner that is both accessible and engaging to the children it is aimed at.
Woohoo moment: There could be only one moment: the bursting of the boil. I saw the moment coming, I’m sure I was meant to, and it was disgustingly, grossly brilliant.