Guardian Review of Faulty Optic show

Fish Clay Perspex
Shunt Vaults, London
3 out of 5

* Lyn Gardner
*
o Lyn Gardner
o The Guardian, Tuesday 20 January 2009
o Article history

Some people wake up and discover that they have turned into a giant beetle; others pop out to the beach one day and end up with a giant fish attached to their heads. So it is in this triptych of loosely connected short pieces from UK puppeteers Faulty Optic, subtitled Incidences of a Quirky Kind. And yes, they are extremely quirky. As is always the case with Faulty Optic, you are plunged into a bizarre micro-world where anything can happen - and what does happen, however strange, seems perfectly normal. It is a tribute to the imaginative and technical flair of the company that you can quickly accept the fact that someone's head can become a beach upon which a fish gets stranded.

1. Fish Clay Perspex
2. by Faulty Optic
3. Shunt Vaults,
4. London

1. Until 24 January
2. Box office:
020-7378 7776
3. Venue website

This is all well and good, although in this instance, the three-part nature of the piece hints at something not yet fully fledged. With the surreal comes a need for clarity in the storytelling that is not always fulfilled here. I found myself marvelling at the invention and enjoying the madness of puppet pottery, cotton-wool waves and scribbled cats that turn into devils - but I'd have liked to know a great deal more about how and why you get trapped in a strait-jacketed world of Perspex. And who are the armless, pointy-footed figures that dance about like Isadora Duncan?

The show is maddest in the Perspex section, and funniest in Clay. But it is most emotionally acute and satisfying in Fish, when a baffled puppet with personality tries to make sense of an apparently senseless world.