It could entirely be a coincidence that I feel there has been a lot of puppetry this year at Fringe. Not that I’m complaining – there is something naughty yet comical about turning cute, cuddly puppets into something darkly comical.

Potty the Plant, taking on the adult puppet movement seen by Avenue Q, is the story of anthropomorphic plant in a doctor’s surgery, who helps to uncover the mystery of missing children but also explores his unrequited love for the nurse.

The staging itself is extremely professional – a whole set has been created to create the surgery feel, still using elements such as a bed pan or a wheelchair when a new scene is created, giving that satirical nod to amateur theatre but also not investing too much is lots of extras. The costumes are simple, just where they need to be, with a fancy-dress-esque approach to Dr Acula’s costume as our undercover vampire. The comparison between this less polished aspect to the very well created set only adds to the comedy.

The songs are well constructed and performed very well, drawing satire from musicals and from the narrative with ease. They have adult aspects to them and this is of course comical and in line with this adult approach. The performers are perfection, without a step wrong and the whole performance runs smooth as butter.

Potty is also well created, adorable and cute. Sat mostly on the table, further comedy is drawn from his handler, stuffed under the table and when they bring him out and on stage for another scene, he plays a part so well, as if he isn’t there but also, fully in character. Potty as a puppet is limited to his reactions and facial expressions, but, somehow, the puppeteer does this so well, using silence, beats and a little over-exaggeration which at times makes his reactions very clear but sometimes it’s a real subtle look that you can just tell is there. These in themselves provide endless humour.

However, the narrative felt a little lost to me. As the name of the show, Potty features only minimal in the story-line. Of course, it needs to be set somewhere and I guess it makes sense in a doctor’s office. But when they go on a true crime spree, detecting the story behind the missing children, the nurses dating life and lack of success, it all feels quite mismatched and almost another story, with Potty just a small accessory. It felt as if more could have been made about Potty, his story being told a lot more and him having more of a spotlight in the performance.

Potty the Plant is a fun concept, dark and full of humour. It’s a good production to see and recommended if you’re looking for something easy and to sit back to watch. It only felt that Potty wasn’t our main star and that the story needed to work out what it really wanted to be about.

(3 / 5)

I think such a gripping title as Hello Kitty Must Die would entice anyone into what this production may be about. And it for sure wasn’t what I expected.

Hello Kitty Must Die is a feminist musical, combating the patriarchal stereotypes in the female and Asian communities but also throwing in dark humour and a bit of… murder.

This musical takes the said stereotypes, giving examples but turning these on their head, with a satirical but unapologetic approach. As a non-asian person, it was interesting and eye opening to hear how Asian women are treated in their own cultures as well as western cultures. The mixture of the two, including the opportunities in both, compete with one another and this transpires on stage, satirically making fun of these but subtly highlighting the issues with these thoughts.

As a musical, the voices are beautiful, powerful and harmonise well. However, I find with a lot of musicals, and those particularly in smaller venues, that the music often overpowers them and so some of the words were missed for me. Catchy in rhythm, they just lacked what was obviously important commentary on the story-line and the feminist opinions.

The actors were brilliant and those who were not the main character did well to jump and change into different characters throughout, embodying these physically and vocally. However, the story begins to be a commentary on how particularly Asian women are expected to be perfect, virginal and live for their husbands. When the narrative somewhat changes to a murder spree, it feels disconnected and a little out of the blue. The moral is in essence that any woman, especially a stereotyped Asian woman can take back their control and be above white men, but it felt a little of an abrupt narrative tact to take. There was no shock to it, nothing surprising with the ending and left us wanting a lot more.

Hello Kitty Must Die is fun, it is professional and full of talent in the singing and acting, but felt a little lost in what the narrative was meant to achieve.

(3 / 5)

A lover of puppets, but also a lover of bringing these family friendly items into the adult universe, a show about dating and puppets sounded up my street.

Liv has been brought up, as we all have, of the idea of a White Knight and Prince Charming. But in a modern world, we have to wade through the frogs on dating apps that may seem like good deals or quickly not, but there is awkwardness and a need to stick with it to find this dream. Liv is crazed by this and, to bring her dating woes to life, these poor matches become our familiar favourite puppets from Sesame Street.

In between the stories, Ruggiero ties these up with contemporary and musical bops, showcasing her phenomenal voice. With this, her voice and ability to perform musical theatre is spectacular and it’s clear how much talent Ruggiero possesses. To bring this into a fringe show, featuring puppets and adult humour is a brilliant idea and should be commended. Despite this, for one who is not a novice but also not an expert on Musical Theatre, there were many songs and references that I wasn’t clear on their origins, with some being quite niche and so lost me a little with this. I guess, if you are happy to not think too much about where they come from or accept complete lack of knowledge of this genre, it’s great to absorb these but it felt distracting to me with recognition of some and not others.

The concept is of course interesting – it touches on predecessors such as Avenue Q or Hand of God, using puppetry to give a humorous approach to adult topics. However, I found myself a little lost with who was who and the story-line and with this, possibly missed some of the comedy or point of the story telling. With Liv’s dating life being summarised as not tying up the search for the love of her life and instead, realisation of confidence in herself, it felt a little out of the blue without us seeing more work on herself that could lead to that conclusion.

Puppets is great fun, with a beautiful voice belting through the walls and fantastic performance in general. I just felt a little lost with the story and felt that the important elements such as the songs were rather niche for an ordinary audience.