It’s hard to believe there is only one puppeteer or marionette player, but it is indeed the case. Norbert Hausberg of Strings Attached Puppet Theatre is a Wellington-based player who has been creating shows there and around the world for – he owns, in his opening greeting – over thirty years.

His manner is calm and relaxed, disarmingly low key and he immediately invites the children of the audience in particular to come forward and sit near, even on the floor, as this is a very intimate kind of theatre and of course the marionettes are small. As time goes by, more and more children drift down to the front of the seating – perhaps to hear a little better as well as to see.

With a simple, portable, set of back drops which serve as castle walls and, reversed, as a forest, and many jokes about minimalist props, he gradually moves the audience into engagement with this, one of the weirder stories from the Brothers Grimm. It is, he suggests, all based on greed.

So one by one we meet the stringed puppets and their characters; first the old Miller, complete with phlegmy cough, and pleading poverty. If only his daughter could spin straw into gold, then he could afford the dresses and makeup her vanity requires, he sighs. He’s overheard by Brother M, the King’s Rapper, splendid in purple hoodie and star motifs, who dances for us and acts as a chorus, and rushes back to tell his poverty stricken king that he’s heard about a miller’s daughter who can turn straw into gold. In next to no time the shabby king has summoned the girl and locked her in the basement, expecting miracles and, cue Rumpelstiltskin, the ugliest troll imaginable … The magic begins to happen.

Hausberg’s vocal range is phenomenal and it’s easy to forget that all these characters, and several at a time, can be voiced and worked by one person. As well as pitch, he uses mumbling and sighing, intonation, singing and chanting to differentiate the characters. And just when the children might be getting a bit restless, he involves them in clapping or helping out, or lets out a troll-like screech.

At today’s show the grown-ups might have even outnumbered the children and the script has plenty of wry comedy for us as well – with jokes about the cost of living, the marriage of convenience between the king and miller’s daughter who can each get what they want, and, for our local Waikato audience, the use of a horse from Patrick Hogan’s stud farm to take Brother M far and wide to find out the wicked troll’s real name.

And the abject notion at the core of the story, that Rumpelstiltskin will be given the new queen’s first born child, is not shied away from although, thankfully, we are not invited to dwell on what such a creature might do with such a sweet little baby in its tiny cane cradle. 

Hausberg’s soft European accent is perfect for this most European of traditions and stories, while his easy adaptation to any interjections and easy manner with the audience reveal years of discipline and experience in his field. At the end he invites questions and opens the backstage hanging frame of puppets to be inspected. This is a great show from an outstanding performer and one for all ages to enjoy. 

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