A lot of rubbish greets us in Circa Two – screwed up newspaper mostly, in a space otherwise inhabited by a park bench and a hedge within which a rubbish bin nestles, over-hung by an autumnal tree.  

Bronwyn Turei joins Kenny King to bring us this iteration of Little Dog Barking’s Paper Shaper, which premiered (as a Capital E show) in 2006 and is again directed by Peter Wilson – with music by Gareth Farr design by Tim Denton and origami by Johnathon Baxter.

Rocking the larval/Basel-style masks – flesh-coloured rather than white – Turei begins as the grumpy park ranger who has to use a grabber to pick up the paper litter and drop it in the overflowing bin, then later becomes a man attempting to have lunch on the park bench. Betwixt and between she joins puppeteer King to help animate … all sorts of things.

Black-clad King is behind the little white man imprinted on the side of the bin who suddenly becomes active, creeps around behind the bin and sucks all the deposited paper down before popping up in a larger, more humanoid form.

Reading something in one of the papers inspires Little Bin Man to disappear, get busy – and launch a paper crane. Gold paper become a sun; the heat means he needs a fan; a rain cloud brings thunder, lightning and rain …

It’s about then that Big Picnic Man comes in with his folding table, paper bag with a table cloth, plastic box and drink bottle, a magazine and newspapers. Having drunk his fill and unpacked an enormous sandwich, he disposes of the packaging in the bin – and so the shenanigans begin: every time he tries to take a bite, something is tossed from the bin.

What emerges becomes ever-more fanciful, and depths are plumbed too, all with excellent sound effects (lighting and sound by Tony Black). Soon nature claims back the park in the shape of flowers, a caterpillar, butterflies …

Just when all possibilities seems to be exhausted, Little Bin Man invites Big Picnic Man – and us – to explore the afore-mentioned depths, as a lyrical UV-light sequence ensues. When they return to the park, a recycling bin is judiciously parked to make the point, in a different way, that not everything is throw-away rubbish.  

As with all Little Dog Barking shows, the exacting work and well-honed skills of all involved allow us to become transported by the story – it’s astonishing how expressive those masks and puppets can be, on the right bodies and in the right hands. What’s more the young ones – and their care-givers – leave inspired to play with the genre at home.

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Sitting in the intimate BATS Propeller stage theatre awaiting the start of the show it is so peaceful that it feels like we are part of the park set with bird song surrounding us.  I even wonder if my children might feel the need to pick up the paper strewn about and put it in the bin but then the park keeper arrives and collects it all up. 

But what was that? Did we see it correctly? I’m sure that little man on the rubbish bin moved. There is a general murmur of surprise from the small attentive audience as the rubbish bin man disappears and the paper from the overflowing bin gets dragged down inside. After a lot of rustling out comes the Paper Shaper who begins to add wondrous origami creations to his surroundings.

When an unsuspecting picnicer tries to dispose of his plastic rubbish, the ‘bin’ rejects them, flinging them out again causing much hilarity amongst the children in the audience.

Here we enter an entertaining dialogue between these two characters. Firstly one of mischievousness and frustration, then curiosity and playfulness leading to friendship. The audience is poised in anticipation for what is going to emerge from the rubbish bin next or how the man is going to get his rubbish to stay in the bin.

Little Dog Barking presents a delightful and thoughtful piece of mask and puppet theatre. No dialogue is needed to convey the story as the performers Peter Wilson and Kenny King expertly show the magic that this style of theatre illustrates through the power and the art of the gesture and the multitudes of faces and emotions possible through the Larval or Basel mask.

Adding to the overall effect, Gareth Farr’s playful music bubbles along, transporting and carrying us into this world of make believe and fun.

Paper Shaper is not only a captivating story for all ages with heart-warming characters and a variety of clever puppets designed by Tim Denton and skilfully portrayed by the actors. There are also lessons of taking the chance to learn about other people’s worlds, and important environmental messages of reduce, re-use, recycle.

As we head home afterwards, the kids wonder if they will find Paper Shaper in any of the bins we pass by and even though I am a child of the 70s, I think I’d prefer to find Paper Shaper than Oscar the Grouch.

Good theatre should continue to inspire thought, re-enactment, and discussion after it has finished and this show certainly does that as we now have our very own home-made newspaper brush and shovel.

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