Eggbird

A Pandora's box of magical surprises with beautiful string puppets which come to life as soon as they are touched.

Eggbird is an hour long performance of string puppetry, full of visual and musical surprises. It starts with complicated marionettes and gets simpler and simpler until some puppets are introduced which can easily be made at home. These simple figures and some basic elements of staging are used to present a fairy tale marionette ballet which is both funny and moving.

The stories are without text, although Stephen talks with the audience sporadically during the performance.* The music is specially composed by Simon Waters, Glyn Perrin and Pete McPhail.

By the end of the performance, audiences will have seen carefully manipulated and highly crafted marionettes, learned how to make simple puppets for themselves and seen that the simplest puppets really can tell complex stories in an exciting and entertaining way.

*The performance can be presented in English, Swedish, French, Italian, Spanish or Portuguese.

Age of audience - Eggbird is intended for children over 5yrs. Since it lasts for a whole hour and has little spoken content, it is not suitable for pre-school children. The music is quite loud and atmospheric. The ideal age range is 6 – 10 yrs, but the performance is enjoyable for adults too.

Technical - Eggbird needs a darkened space, ideally with raked seating. The minimum stage area is 5m width X 4m depth X 2.5m height. Get-in time 2hours+, get-out 45 mins.

"Mottram slinks between his creatures like a wise old cat and the magical touch of his hands gives them sudden life.”

La Nacion

“One watches Stephen Mottram in a kind of trance. He creates a little, magical world with tremendous visual impact – it has a rare and powerful beauty.”

Folha de Sao Paulo

A drawing of Stephen performing the rag ballet by a fan.