FLABBERGHAST THEATRE

FLABBERGAST - To astound and amaze

Flabbergast was set up to make uncompromising and exciting physical theatre drawing on the Bunraku style of puppetry and a belief that all Theatre should be engaging and sweaty.
It asks the ultimate commitment mentally vocally and physically from its actors in order to achieve an intensity of performance which is all too often lacking in theatre of the day. It believes that its actors are its single greatest resource and as such endeavours to create theatre through an extensive and collaborative research and development process.
The company hopes to develop existing texts and new devised pieces bringing an innovative and unpretentious approach to its work.

The company was founded by the actor Henry Maynard in response to a desire to utilise his hand crafted puppets and puppetry training.

He has collaborated with Blind Summit and Complicité on the production 'SHUN KIN' and made many puppets for Blind Summit's various productions, including 1984 in which he played Charrington. More recently he realised the role of Dolour in ‘Faeries’ at the royal operea house.

“Flabbergast's Puppet Poker Pit is an amoral morality fable starring a violent, foul-mouthed puppet determined to renege on the ultimate poker debt.” - British theatre guide

"...there are a couple of pieces I’d recommend putting at the top of the ‘to see’ list….Flabbergast Theatre’s potty-mouthed, Bunraku-style puppets will make you laugh out loud as they bicker over their chips in Puppet Poker Pit..." - What's on stage

Our favourite performance of the evening was Flabbergast Puppet Poker, which featured two gravelly voiced, foul mouthed, Eastern European puppets called Boris and Sergey. Each puppet was animated and voiced by three people. The prose was hilariously filthy but strangely full of pathos. Unadulterated genius." – We Like This Too