05 Dec 2017 – 05 May 2018
Trafalgar Studios
13 Oct – 13 Nov 2016
Bristol Old Vic
The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Times, The Observer, The Sunday Times, The Independent, Daily Mail, Sunday Express, Mail on Sunday
“The puppetry by Gyre & Gimble is superb.”
The Times
“The best puppetry since War Horse.”
Mail On Sunday
“Best of all is the puppetry, notably an awe-inspiring wolf, half-human and half-marionette.”
Sunday Express
“It certainly looks beautiful – whether in the achingly expressive marionette version of Grinpayne as a child or in the wonderfully moving Mojo, a skeletal grey wolf.”
The Independant
“The puppetry is miraculous, ranging from a miniature re-enactment of Beauty and the Beast to a wolf so consistently lupine that only in retrospect do you realise that you have been bewitched.”
The Observer
Based on The Man Who Laughs by Victor Hugo
“One small smile can change your world.”
A strange new act has arrived at the Trafalgar Fair, a grotesque oasis of entertainment. Soon everyone from the gutter rats to the Queen has fallen for the freak Grinpayne and his hideously beautiful face. But who is he really? And how did he come to possess such a gruesome smile? Together with an old man, a blind girl and a wolf, he has a past to uncover. A tale so tragic and twisted that not even he can guess how it will end.
This production was Gyre & Gimble’s first collaboration with Tom Morris since War Horse and featured many forms of puppetry. From a shadow puppet prologue, to bunraku-inspired incarnations of young Grinpayne and Dea as well as a puppet/performer hybrid in Mojo the wolf.
Creative Team
| Writer | Carl Grose |
| Music & Lyrics | Tim Phillips & Marc Teitler |
| Director | Tom Morris |
| Set Designer | Jon Bausor |
| Costume Designer | Jean Chan |
| Puppetry Design & Direction | Finn Caldwell & Toby Olié |
| Associate Puppetry Director | Rachel Leonard |
| Movement Director | Jane Gibson |
| Lighting Designer | Richard Howell |
| Sound Designer | Simon Baker |
| Music Supervisor | Tom Deering |
| Puppet Fabricators | Nick Barnes, Daisy Beattie, Dulcie Best, Caroline Bowman, Marc Parrett, Hugh Purves, Zosia Stella-Sawicka & Tim Sykes |
Original Cast
| Grinpayne | Louis Maskell |
| Dea | Audrey Brisson |
| Ursus/King Clarence | Sean Kingsley |
| Mojo a wolf | Stuart Angell & Alice Barclay |
| Barkilphedro | Julian Bleach |
| Duchess Josiana | Gloria Onitiri |
| Lord David Dirry-moir | Stuart Neal |
| Queen Angelica | Patrycja Kujawska |
| Lord Trelaw/Osric | Ewan Black |
| Lady Trelaw/Quake | Gloria Obianyo |
| Band | Stu Barker, Pete Flood, David Guy, Ross Hughes & Tarek Merchant |