Two children's puppetry shows featuring Pips And Panda run during 2014 Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Puppetry combining computer animation and UV to bring style up-to-date for the electronic generation
There aren’t many children’s theatre companies who can claim to have entertained three generations of the same family. But if, like Purves Puppets, you’ve been treading the boards for 40 years, inevitably some of your earliest audiences will produce offspring – who enjoy the same things their parents did.
‘The main things that kids love don't change,’ says puppeteer Ian Purves. ‘Plenty of action, spectacular scenes, and characters they really identify with. We always bring the main puppets out to meet the audience afterwards, and often meet people who bring their children to see their favourites from when they were that age.’
Bringing two shows to the Fringe – Pips and Panda in Magicland and Pips and Panda Meet the Three Bears – Purves Puppets has forged its reputation on innovative Ultraviolet staging.
‘We started to experiment with Ultraviolet in 1965,’ explains Purves. ‘As a puppeteer, it sets you free – you can fly through the air or vanish in a flash. It fills the whole stage with colour and holds the children's focus. And now we are combining computer animation with UV to bring our style up-to-date for the electronic generation.’
South Leith Church Halls, 07896 051826, 30 Jul--12 Aug (not 3, 10), 11am (In Magicland), 1.30pm (Meet the Three Bears), £8.