Puppetry brings Animal Farm to life on Birmingham stage

Toby Olié made his first puppet when he was six, after discovering a "how to" guide in the school library. He also found his dream profession that day.

The fixation took hold and he remembers saying: "Mum, you need to give me an old jumper because I need to make this puppet."

Toby is now a director, designer, and performer of puppetry, and has designed the puppetry for the new theatre production of Animal Farm, which is at the Birmingham Rep this month.

Adapted from George Orwell's iconic novel about animals starting a revolution on a farm, it's a notoriously dark metaphor for Stalin's Soviet Union, which might seem jarring when told through puppetry.

"It affects the tone of the piece in a really exciting way," Toby says. "Puppetry's roots in this country are very family-friendly, there's an inherent belief that if something has puppets in it it's automatically for a younger-years audience, whereas in other countries it's a much more adult high art form.

"What really excited me about this project is the tone and staging style is a lot more mature, we want it to be as impactful and harsh as the original novel.

"We're trying to keep that rapid-fire pace so you feel once it starts, you never let go."

As a puppeteer, Toby has designed and created puppets, but also acted as a puppet performer on stage, most famously as Joey in War Horse.

"I absolutely love it," Toby says. "Performing is something that feels quite zen and like meditating for me, because I genuinely don’t think about my body.

"My whole focus and energy is in the head of this character and I literally disappear in it – you forget yourself and become another being for awhile.

"Puppeteering is acting, you’re just not acting with your body, you’re acting with something else. You’re applying just as much thought and focus and energy and emotion into your performance, it just so happens it’s in another form.

"Some of the most generous, beautiful actors I’ve seen on stage have been puppeteers."

Toby trained in puppetry at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, a course which no longer runs.

He adds: "I would really love more of an infrastructure for training and puppeteers. Last year there was a huge shortage of puppet makers and there just weren't enough people.

"So I keep thinking how can I help empower and train up the next generation, so the amount of work that supplies puppetry can keep going and we don’t fall short of eager people."

Animal Farm is at the Birmingham Rep from Saturday until Saturday February 5.

To book tickets, go to the Birmingham Rep website.