10 September 2026
A group of curious people gathered for Theatre Lab at Coventry Cathedral’s Chapter House for a session exploring puppetry with Flawed Mandrake Theatre. We explored bringing things to life with paper and a whole host of puppets created from recycled materials.
Mr. Mole By Flawed Mandrake Theatre
Coventry Cathedral very kindly hosted us in their Chapter House, which is an incredible space in the round, designed to carry voices with ease to the listeners sat around the room.
Here, Pippa led us through bringing paper to life, finding its “intrinsic nature” and allowing it to move and breathe in a way that felt natural to the material. Our papers awoke, saw the world, began to explore it, met others along the way, merged to become one, grew, stomped, flew, growled and mated in a frenzy of activity.
Puppet from Foster Care
Pippa introduced us to a host of puppets that she had made from recycled materials or gathered over the years, including moles, Indonesian princes, mice, old ladies and a very provocative monkey. Each came alive in the hands of the puppeteer, but also their nature changed when the puppet changed hands. It was fascinating to see the different qualities that came from different interpretations while still feeling truthful to the materials of the puppet.
It was interesting to feel just how much how much joy we experienced as an audience when the puppets looked at us and connected with us. When the mole wanted to lie down so did a very simple look at his pillow and then look out at us, we fell about laughing because suddenly we felt, seen, spoken to and were let in behind the eyes of the puppet into it’s mind, it’s inner workings.
It’s exciting to notice how much humanity and empathy we find, even in inanimate objects, when we look into each other’s eyes.
Theatre Lab at Coventry Cathedral Chapter House
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