Handspring Puppet Company

In July 2012 the puppet makers from the Handspring Puppet Company, creators of the War Horse puppets, visited London to see the show for the first time.

See inside the workshop of the Handspring Puppet Company and discover how they make all the puppets for the show.

Basil and Adrian from Handspring Puppet Company are interviewed about their puppets for War Horse on the Olivier stage. They give a demonstration of the puppets in action and talk about the design and engineering of the puppets.

Handspring Puppet Theatre have many experiments with performance, with and without puppets, planned for the future.

The soul of the puppet lies in the palm of the hand and therefore it is the source of creativity.

Handspring worked with the Sogolon Puppet Troupe from Mali on this project.

An in depth description of how the horse puppets in War Horse were designed and constructed.

A puppet can make something ordinary into something new and epic.

Basil and Adrian discuss the tools of their trade. They speak of their relationships with the puppets and how they see the role of a puppet in theatre.

The puppet can be a mask, or an emotional prosthesis that frees the shy actor.