Venus and Adonis is very much a lost and found story; Venus finds Adonis; woos him - hilariously and not altogether effectively – then loses him; frets a bit; finds him again, but has (alas) lost him, fatally. It’s essentially a tragedy (well, it is Shakespeare after all; there’s got to be a bit of a body pile-up, surely?) but this production brings out all the colour of the poem; slapstick, poignancy, eroticism, beauty and loads of humour. These puppets are funny. And not in a stupid Punch & Judy hit-you-on-the-head-with-a-big-sock funny, but clever, well-observed funny.

When Venus passionately drags Adonis off his horse (atta girl - no sense of beating round the bush with our goddess of love here!), he primly removes her wandering hand from his thigh, as she faints theatrically but sneaks a peek to make sure that he is paying attention. C’mon ladies, we’ve all been there. Well, maybe not dragging people off horses; but the brilliantly rendered female manipulative attention-seeking drew a knowing chuckle from many women in the audience (of which I was one of the youngest; which is quite surprising seeing as puppet shows are for kids aren’t they?). And they’re not just funny; but sad, proud, confused, frightened, ecstatic: generally running the gamut of human emotions; which is pretty impressive seeing as they are only objects made of wood. But the incredible skill of the puppeteers tricks you into thinking otherwise; I actually got quite attached to the cheeky capricious goddess of love and the slightly ridiculous, haughty object of her affection. Even the animals in the show (lusty horses x2, twittering doves x2, jittery hare x1, terrifying boar x1) have truckloads of personality. It almost seemed strange applauding the puppeteers at the end, rather than the puppets! Although they are visible throughout the show their skill is that they seem to be the inanimate machine, and the puppets are the living, feeling beings.