A BASINGSTOKE puppet-maker will have his creations brought to life in a brand new opera coming to the town next month.

Nick Ash, who runs Scratch Built Production from Basingstoke’s Proteus Theatre company, builds and crafts puppets and his work has now been picked to star in Mahogany Opera Group production’s ‘The Rattler’.

The family opera, which is based on the true and original story of Rumpelstiltskin, will use Nick’s puppet to depict the German folk villain.

The interactive show, which fuses the retelling of the iconic fairytale with folk-infused music and inventive storytelling, will tell how Alyson, a weaver’s daughter, dreams of escaping her humble life, while Prince Aiden longs to rid the shackles of royal expectations.

And when the mysterious Rattle hears their wishes, he begins to manipulate them for his own ends.

Despite living in an era when CGI dominates films and stage shows become ever-more lavish, Nick believes the age-old tradition of puppetry is without a doubt making a comeback.

“I think puppetry has exploded within the last 10 years or so because it seems that more and more people are wanting to use them in their shows,” the 42-year-old told The Gazette.

“If you have a puppet it makes a statement in a show and makes impossible things seem real. You can’t bring a cast of 100 animals on stage with you, but you can have that many puppets so it gives your audience the feeling that what they see will be interesting.”

Nick added: “Making a ghost was one of those. Having to make it see-through is difficult, but it’s fascinating to create these puppets.”

The first recorded forms of theatre involving puppetry dates back to the 5th century BC in Ancient Greece.

It’s an art that takes many various shapes including shadow, finger and hand.

Nick’s creations can take be manned by three people and take weeks to make, but it’s an art that Nick has taken to his heart.

“Nothing eats time quite like making a puppet,” Nick continued.

“To make it look cool, to make it look snappy “It can take weeks and weeks to get perfectly right.”

“I kind of got into puppetry when I was an actor putting on my own shows and asked Jim Henson’s designers to make me one and as you can imagine it was so expensive.

“I thought I can do this and it’s something I’ve been doing ever since then.”

Nick added: “This opera will be accessible and is aimed at a largely younger audience so I am hoping children will respond to the puppet – he does look quite scary.”

The Rattler is coming to The Haymarket on Saturday September 24 at 3pm.
Tickets are £10, for details visit anvilarts.org.uk.