WCT’s Giant Puppet at Wimborne War on Waste Street Party

22 Dec 2024

WCT's giant-puppet, now renamed Iris Willow-Walker, took to the streets of a very wet town at Wimborne War on Waste's Street Party on Saturday 22 September 2018. WWOW organizers invited WCT to provide a short dramatic provocation, flagging up the key issue of the global environmental threat caused by single use plastics. So we revived the Naiad, the giant puppet first seen last summer emerging from the ancient pond in Leigh Common in our production ‘By The Way’. The Naiad’s new role was as another Giant, based on the popular storybook of the same name by Charles and Julia Snape. The giant who has lived for many years as a hill above a fictional town in the countryside near the sea, offering people shade, shelter, fruit and flowers, as well as a special place to play safely. But she grows fed up of them taking her for granted, digging holes in her and dumping their rubbish on her, and, one night, gets up and walks away into the nearby sea. The people are horrified and try to persuade her to come back but she won’t until they make it clear how they will change their ways. Iris made her way down Mill Lane into the Square  accompanied by live music and performed to the words of a poem based on the book, The Giant. We then made our way in procession to the Minster Green, where members of the public were invited to stop by our craft stall (staffed mainly by Clare and Hannah) and make their own mini puppets to fly around the giant. The puppet was designed and made from recycled materials by WCT members Clare and Hannah Small, assisted by others. See more photos here See the outline for the performance and the words of the poem The Giant

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