Imagine a race of small creatures that look remarkably like humans, but are really more like insects or plants. They are The Seed Carriers. Valuable and vulnerable, they are farmed for the seeds carried within them. They must develop their cunning to survive the ruthless social system in which they live. In conspiracy with a score by Glyn Perrin, these puppets draw their audience into a beautiful world which becomes horrific and then haunting, as our understanding of it starts to dawn. This is the story of Stephen Mottram's award-winning adult work of animated theatre, which exploits the relationship between electro-acoustic music and the images of movement. "Thematically it's about human vulnerability and death, it's an adult performance" he said. "Adults are surprised at the medium, which you often associate with fairly lightweight themes, rather than a story which is frightening and hard. "There's almost an amount of violence in the piece as well, which you don't expect from puppet theatre," he added. In an interview with bbc.co.uk/norfolk, Stephen said his aim was to create a show where the audience would leave the theatre – not talking about the medium of puppetry, but about the content.  | | The Seed Carriers |
"It touches people quite deeply, they come out talking about their sensations of the piece, the way it touches their own feelings about vulnerability, about being insignificant and fearful," he said. Adults and puppet theatre Stephen Mottram feels the interest in adult puppet theatre is on the up, with a growing movement towards non-book based theatre. "People are interested in new theatre forms and maybe puppet theatre is attracting an audience because of that," he said. "I'm not sure there would be a big enough audience for this just in Britain, but we work all over Europe and in travelling, we find pockets of interest in a 'sort of' puppet theatre which is aimed at adults. "We also do a lot of work in the countries thought of as Eastern Europe where there were big traditions of puppet theatre," he added. Stephen Mottram is no stranger to Norfolk, having living in the county for a number of years. "I'm very pleased to be part of the festival. I lived in Norwich for a long time and it's great to be going back to take a show to the festival. It's fantastic," he said. Stephen Mottram's Animata: The Seed Carriers can be seen on Thursday 5 May, 2005 from 8pm at the Norwich Puppet Theatre. For ticket information call 01603 766400. This production is not suitable for children. | 
