The Legend of the Holy Drinker, The Pound, Corsham

BASED on the novella by Joseph Roth, this piece of puppetry brings a touch of Paris to Corsham.

Set in a bar in Rue de Tournon, Paris, it is 2am, closing time. But two street performers persuade a tired landlady to give them one last drink and to hear their story. Three performers, one puppet, a ukulele and an accordion, songs, dance, a bar, the night, a drink or two and The Legend of the Holy Drinker begins….

Winchester-based Platform 4 Theatre is an artist-led company that creates playful and unexpected worlds in which performers and participants can explore their creativity and the things that matter to them. The work is highly visual, often intimate in scale and process, connects people and puts human relationships at the heart of the event.

Catherine Church, artistic director of Platform 4 says: “We create magical performance work that aims to captivate and involve. Our programme of work seeks to enrich audiences, particularly young and older people, through beautiful, quality arts experiences and unique cross-arts participatory projects. Characteristics of the work include an intimacy of experience, tightly choreographed movement and multi-layered soundtracks. We aim to create tantalising atmospheres that surround and envelop an audience with sound, light and scene.

“To our knowledge, this is the first time this Joseph Roth novella has been staged and toured in the UK. Our puppet, Andreas, has been made with help from crowd funding by master puppet maker Jan Zalud,” added Catherine.

The Legend of the Holy Drinker comes to The Pound tomorrow (Friday, February 26) at 7.30pm. Tickets are £10 (£9 concessions) from www.poundarts.org.uk or 01249 701628.