The Devil and Mister Punch

The 2011 FringeArts Festival featured the American premiere of Improbable Theatre's The Devil and Mister Punch, which took its inspiration from Punch and Judy, an iconic puppet show well known for its violent yet comic tone, and the raucous, villainous, and mischievous personality of its main character, Punch. This new work, co-commissioned by the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival with the Walker Art Center and London's Barbican Centre, was directed by Obie Award winner Julian Crouch, who has worked with major opera companies such as the Metropolitan Opera and the English National Opera, as well as on Philip Glass's opera SATYAGRAHA.

"As you would expect from Crouch, one of theater's great designers," wrote London's The Guardian when the show toured, "The Devil and Mister Punch is a visual delight, played out on a design like a wooden advent calendar full of apertures and trap doors through which the puppets and actors appear." Time Out London added, "The Devil and Mister Punch is rude, raucous, and irreverent, but also full of wistfulness for the vaudeville era."

Click here for a preview of The Devil and Mister Punch.