Peter Firmin looked at the 12th-century Lewis Chessmen, and saw Nogs: men from the Northlands, ruled over by a wise, kind King.
The Nogs' classic children's adventures are retold here - in The Sagas of Noggin the Nog at Metfield Village Hall - in a beautiful touring production which melds together puppetry, projections and music with a deliciously low-tech feel: our Vikings, fierce, yet exquisitely polite, puff bellows to blow a projection onto a stretched reindeer hide, where original animations by Firmin and Oliver Postgate support the flowing stage action as four skilled actors portray many characters.
Puppets and instruments join the action seamlessly, magically telescoping the storytelling scale. In two sagas full of suspense, with regular pauses for tea and hot buttered toast, we follow young Noggin as he journeys across icy wastes to win his Eskimo bride Nooka, then faces a thrilling dramatic encounter with Grolliffe, the ice dragon.
Charlotte Valori
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