A twist on a classic with puppet beasts

A bustling neighbourhood square surrounded by a train station, a bus interchange and a busy food centre is not the first venue one associates with the Singapore International Festival of Arts (Sifa).

- Shawn Hoo

"All animals are equal" — so goes one of the famed seven commandments in English novelist George Orwell's classic Animal Farm, after a group of animals rebel against their human farmer to create a free and equal society.

But speak to puppet designer and lead puppet-maker Loo An Ni and she will tell you that is not true. While making the 13 puppets — from pigs to hens to donkeys — one puppet made her job especially difficult.

She is creating the creatures for The Finger Players' (TFP) production of Animal Farm, which opens at the Singapore International Festival of Arts (Sifa) on May 16.

Loo and her team of six had already been given a challenging brief by director Oliver Chong — to have one puppeteer steer one life-size puppet.

Usually, multiple actors puppeteer a single animal character to give it lifelike movement. For example, three actors work the Bengal tiger Richard Parker in the Broadway adaptation of Yann Martel's Life Of Pi.