Skip to main contentSkip to navigation Close dialogue1/2 Next image Previous image Toggle caption Playfully raunchy … Venus & Adonis. Photograph: Lucy Barriball View image in fullscreen Playfully raunchy … Venus & Adonis. Photograph: Lucy Barriball ReviewVenus & Adonis review – Simon Russell Beale narrates cheeky tale of puppet passion The Pit, Barbican, LondonGreg Doran directs Shakespeare’s timeless poem of seduction, told with Lyndie Wright’s gorgeous, masterfully manoeuvred miniatures Love comes with strings attached in Greg Doran’s tragic romance. First performed 22 years ago, this enchanting production of Shakespeare’s great poem of unrequited love is now tenderly narrated by Simon Russell Beale. With masterful puppetry and a playful air of seduction, there’s no wonder this conjuring of Venus’s pursuit of the handsome Adonis has had so many lives. Like love – and heartbreak – its magic is timeless.No breath is wasted with these cheeky puppets, wooden in material only, designed and created by Lyndie Wright. A raunchy Venus weeps and begs as the gorgeous, occasionally petulant Adonis rejects her advances, more interested in hunting than in love. Venus moves with such ease, you hardly see the team of puppeteers holding her arms as she hurls herself down at Adonis’s feet, or curling her legs as she wallows in self pity. The five puppeteers swim around their characters, handing over control…
Published: June 24, 2026 5:50 pm
Source: The Guardian — Read original