Annette Mees
posted 9 February 2006

From the opening monologue about black shrivelled raisins we are confronted with the fact this is going to be a piece about death. The monologue is Leonardo's, brooding in the flat that was once home to his happy family. As he remembers the start of his romance with Amie in all its glorious, pedestrian intimacy, he talks to his daughter Imogen. We slowly piece together the loss of his daughter and the subsequent breakdown of his relationship.

Unable to live with his loss, his mind resurrects the past. It leaves him lost in nostalgia and unable to connect with everyday life. Everything but his grief seems futile. We live with Leonardo through his intense heartbreak before the writer/director Toby Clarke leaves us with a ray of hope. Dani Machancoses as Leonardo is the star of the show, involving everyone in his painful and personal journey without ever crossing the line into melodrama.

The mix of puppetry, physical theatre and dialogue allows Imogen to convey the surreal and magical elements of love and loss. There are highly styled sequences, like when Machancoses with the help of a puppeteer evokes an underwater sequence, which make the persona experience more real then fourth wall realism ever could. Imogen is a puppet, operated by the graceful Lowri James, a little girl with large eyes and a bunny suit. Her disembodied voice makes her presence ghostlike. The love between her and her father is made very real through the interaction between the actor, the puppet and her puppeteer.

Imogen is a potent show full of sadness, private grief and well-observed humour. The production has been put together in a respectful and tender way. It tries to tackle the sort of grief we'd rather not talk about. The grief that lingers long after a funeral, the grief that debilitates and against which well-meant advice to 'be brave and get on' just doesn't help. It makes it a very un-British show which deserves to be seen by many.

Till 11 February 2006.