Puppets and people live side by side

Taking the alcohol-fuelled short stories and poetry of Charles Bukowski as inspiration, Blind Summit Theatre returns with a series of sketches set in the ramshackle bar The Drunken Puppeteer.

Here, the Low Life Cabaret unfolds, where puppets and people live side by side. Take note, though - there is no folksy drama in sight; only the hardened deadbeats and romanticised bar life of Bukowski's oppressive underbelly world.

The puppets - ranging from semi life-sized to impossibly tiny - take on the life and soul of their very visible puppeteers. Smoking, drinking, screaming and fighting, the four-strong cast skilfully imbue each doll with nuances of human expression.

Despite being about everyday, low-life issues, each sketch has an ethereal quality. A puppet-man's alcoholism becomes a love affair with the glass as he pleads and woos it into staying. Set to a soundtrack of Jacques Brel's Ne Me Quitte Pas, it's impossible not to be moved.

Other scenes are not as romantic. A skit about a bumbling private detective dilutes the subtle magic with overplayed farce.

Occasionally the cast overcrowd the sketches, like children who have become over-excited by their game, disturbing the illusion. Despite this, their enthusiasm is infectious, affording some highly comedic moments as self-conscious playfulness and darker shades of meaning combine.

Low Life
Battersea Arts Centre
Lavender Hill, SW11 5TN