The best show I saw at the first Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival in 2015 was “The Table” by England’s Blind Summit Theatre. It consisted simply of a rectangular table and a single puppet with a small, rather amorphous cloth body and an oversized cardboard head. Named Moses and operated by three puppeteers, he looked like he could have stepped out of the Bible (from the neck up, anyway) and was curmudgeonly, extremely funny and intensely alive as he commented on everything from his immediate surroundings to his philosophy of life. He blew me away.
A decade later, the eighth annual Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival running this Jan. 21-Feb. 1 promises to be the most exciting ever. With more than 100 events and programs at dozens of venues, it brings together puppet artists from England, France, Norway, Denmark, India, Scotland, South Korea and Spain, as well as Chicago and the rest of the U.S. Attendance might even top last year’s record of 22,000.
Here are some shows not to miss, starting in Hyde Park but otherwise in no particular order. Happily, Blind Summit will be back with a new production I can’t wait to see.
For more information and tickets, visit chicagopuppetfest.org.
“The Harlem Doll Palace” by Alva Puppet Theatre (New York City/U.S.)
Jan. 22-24 at the Logan Center for the Arts
Join the dolls from the “dollection” inside Aunt Len’s Doll and Toy Museum as they recreate their journeys to the museum and try to keep its beloved founder alive while Harlem deteriorates around her. Based on the true story of Lenon Holder Hoyt, a public school art teacher for 40 years who created a doll museum in her Harlem brownstone, the show features artistic director Alva Rogers as Aunt Len.
“Trust Me for a While” by Plexus Polaire (France/Norway)
Jan. 28-Feb. 1 at the Logan Center for the Arts
Back for its fifth fest — having wowed past audiences with “Dracula: Lucy’s Dream,” “Moby Dick,” “Chambre Noire” and “Cendres” — Plexus Polaire has also added a second production, this one on the South Side. In the horror-comedy “Trust Me for a While,” artistic director Yngvild Aspeli explores the fraught relationship between ventriloquists and their dummies while questioning what is real and what is fake.
“A Doll’s House” by Plexus Polaire (France/Norway)
Jan. 22-24 at DePaul University’s Merle Reskin Theatre
Plexus Polaire’s main show, Aspeli’s eerie take on Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 classic, features Nora (played by her) as a prisoner of her own web of lies in a house haunted by hyper-realistic, life-size puppets, dead birds, a possessed female choir and other ghosts created with video projections and music as well as puppets and actors. It invites us to explore our life choices.
“Happy Birthday, Mon Ami” by Alex & Olmsted (Baltimore/U.S.)
Feb. 1 at the Experimental Station
As part of the fest’s Free Neighborhood Tour, which this year includes two shows touring the city, “Happy Birthday, Mon Ami” uses glove puppetry, live music and audience participation to present the clash of class, cultures and expectations that arise when Jacques’ American cousin Sam visits him in Paris for a birthday celebration. Think “Kukla, Fran and Ollie” or “Punch and Judy,” only different.
“Dead as a Dodo” by Wakka Wakka (Norway/U.S.)
Jan. 21-25 at the Studebaker Theater
In this musical odyssey about survival, transformation and the power of friendship, two skeleton friends in the underworld, a Dodo and a boy, notice something peculiar: the Dodo is miraculously sprouting feathers! When a wave of transformation ensues, shattering the established order of the dead, fear and chaos erupt, and the two must flee, fighting to stay together as they are drawn into the heart of an epic battle between life and death. Back by popular demand, “Dead as a Dodo” showcases stunning visual effects from a nonprofit company that has created 13 original works, frequently in collaboration with others. This is the festival opener, and there’s a pre-show reception and a post-show party on opening night.
“Rhynoceron” by KT Shivak (Chicago/U.S.)
Jan. 22-25 on the Chopin Theatre Mainstage
A Chicago premiere from a local company, “Rhynoceron” traces the true events surrounding the arrival of a one-horned rhinoceros to Renaissance Europe, sparking an obsession that continued for hundreds of years. Through acts of hunting and collecting, KT Shivak’s life-size, lifelike rhino puppet transforms in front of our eyes from a natural wonder to an object of human greed. Created with support from The Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, the production premiered last May at New York’s Puppetopia 2025, and the realistic puppet was also a star attraction in the recent Chicago Cultural Center exhibit, “Potential Energy: Chicago Puppets Up Close.”
“The 4th Witch” by Manual Cinema (Chicago/U.S.)
Jan. 22-25 at The Biograph’s Začek-McVay Mainstage
Fans of the local performance collective, design studio and film and video production company will be thrilled by its fifth puppet fest outing, which turns elements from Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” upside down.
On the eve of an invasion of her small town by the local warlord, Macbeth, a young girl escapes into the forest, where she is rescued by a witch, who adopts her as an apprentice. As the girl becomes more skilled in witchcraft, her grief and rage spark a quest for vengeance against the warlord who killed her parents. Combining shadow puppetry, actors in silhouette, cinematic techniques and live music, “The 4th Witch” explores themes of grief, war, generational conflict and cycles of violence.
“Nasty, Brutish & Short” by Rough House Puppet Arts (Chicago/International)
Jan. 23-24 at Constellation
I haven’t seen this raucous, raunchy multi-company cabaret, but it is a fest favorite and was named “Best Late-Night Adult-Content Puppet Cabaret” by the Chicago Reader, so it must be fun. It also provides a low-risk environment for artists to perform new and experimental work. This year the cabarets are being streamed live, too.
“The Sex Lives of Puppets” by Blind Summit Theatre (England)
Jan. 26-31 at The Biograph’s Začek-McVay Mainstage
This collaboration between Blind Summit’s puppets and the National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles pulls back the covers on puppet sex to expose the filthy, funny, shocking and touching “nuts and bolts” and eroticism in contemporary Britain. Inspired by real-life responses and featuring an array of expressive puppets, it was called “oddly adorable” by the New York Times.
“Roald Dahl’s The Enormous Crocodile” by the Roald Dahl Story Company (England)
Jan. 29-Feb. 1 (and post-fest until Feb. 21) at the Studebaker Theater
A menagerie of puppet jungle creatures ranging from Trunky the Elephant to Muggle-Wump the Monkey tries to foil the secret plans and clever tricks of the hungry, greedy Enormous Crocodile in the U.S. premiere tour of this U.K. hit musical based on Dahl’s book. The music is by Ahmed Abdullahi Gallab, with a book and lyrics by Suhayla El-Bushra, and additional music and lyrics by Tom Brady.
“The House” by Sofie Krog Theatre (Denmark)
Jan. 29-Feb. 1 at Steppenwolf’s Merle Reskin Space
Two puppeteers lead audiences behind closed doors and into rooms that hide unspeakably dark deeds in this puppet comedy thriller about the Warehouse Family Funeral Home whose undertaker changes her will on her deathbed. The complex performance unfolds in a revolving set featuring intricate lighting, strange contraptions and scary sound effects – the perfect setting for hilarious horror, twists and turns and jumping souls.
“About Ram” by Katkatha Puppet Arts Trust (India)
Jan. 29-31 at the Dance Center of Columbia College
This experimental theater piece, created with support from the India Foundation for the Arts and in collaboration with animator Vishal Dar and master puppeteer S.Chidambara Rao, uses excerpts from the Bhavbhuti’s “Ramayana” told through animation, digitally projected dance, masks and puppets. The ancient Indian epic focuses on Prince Ram, an incarnation of the god Vishnu, who is exiled and must fight the demon king Ravana to rescue his wife Sita. It serves as a guide to Hindu principles like dharma, exploring themes of good versus evil, ideal relationships and duty.
“The Matchbox Shows” by Laura Heit (Portland/U.S.)
Jan. 22-25 at Constellation
All the world is a matchbox in Laura Heit’s miniature cabaret where she performs teeny, tiny puppet shows about a dead boyfriend, a sausage fairy, a tiger whisperer, a perfectionist, a bath-loving ghost and many others. The miniature stages come to life with crankies, fire and pop-up paper engineering. Fortunately, the puppet shows are simultaneously projected on a screen behind her table, making the details larger than life.
Closing Party
Feb. 1 at The Rhapsody Theater
Festival favorite Joshua Holden and his right-hand man, the charmingly misanthropic Mr. Nicholas, co-emcee this final evening of puppetry spotlighting “Cowboy Outlaw” performed by artistic director and festival founder Blair Thomas and Silas Thomas, “What to Do in a Puppet Emergency” by Blind Summit’s Mark Down and surprises.
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