In this celebration of books, reading and libraries, the pioneers of the puppet musical MONSTRO Theatre and their talented band of performers use songs, puppetry and dynamic performance to tell the story of the story in the digital age.
This is the tale of some books, in a library. But these are no ordinary books and this is no ordinary library. It’s Brian’s library: a wonderful, magical place where the books like to flutter their pages and let their shelves go… Then one day Brian changes and the library goes quiet. What’s going on? The books had better stiffen their spines and get to the bottom of this mystery.
Book Story engages with the challenges of the digital age by exploring our deep fondness for the simpler age of the page. With singing books and shimmying librarians, it’s a production that’s funny, surreal, touching and completely unpredictable. As it celebrates our love of books, Book Story also celebrates the power of our imaginations and our human need to pass on all the stories of our lives: from mind, to page, to ear, to heart. It’s a tonic for the digital age.
Award-winning writer/director Ben Glasstone comments, This is a notion I’d had maybe ten years ago when sitting in a library and staring at a shelf of oversize books, thrown haphazardly together on a shelf. These books look like odd shelf-fellows. Why are they sitting next to each other on a shelf? Who put them there? How do they feel about it? Some years later, looking for an idea for a kids’ show for my theatre company I decided to pursue these questions further. Once you start to think about books as characters, you notice a lot of compelling analogies between people and books.
