Story of a Rabbit

Story of a Rabbit : Hoipolloi, New Wolsey Studio Theatre, Ipswich until Saturday

The Sixth Pulse Fringe Festival kicked off to a splendid start with Hoipolloi's Story of a Rabbit. It's a whimsical, thoughtful, charming show on its way to the Edinburgh Festival where it will be an undoubted hit.

Hoipolloi is a theatre company founded by and giving a vehicle for the extraordinary talents of an innocent, naïve and very funny character called Hugh Hughes, the alter ego of the company's creator and principal performer, Shôn Dale-Jones .

Hugh Hughes is a shy storytelling philosopher, telling his audience his personal tales and thinking his sweet thoughts. Throughout he uses odd props scattered around as untidy a stage as you'll ever see. Here you get a pair of shoes, a pull-string light, a model of a street he once lived in, Action Man, a ladder, a potato, a car wheel, a phone, a tea urn and all sorts of visual and hi-tech aids. These range from a flip chart, to a carousel projector to anything that a couple of laptops can put onto a screen. His most helpful aid is his 'best friend Aled' - guitarist, banjoist, keyboard player, voice, and audio manipulator extraordinaire.

Hugh tells two stories, which turn out to be interconnected. One is about a rabbit he looks after for a neighbour while away on holiday. The other is about the death of his father. What makes the show so moving is this second theme. It becomes a lament for the loss of a deeply loved one with that curious attention to remembered detail that we all have with such sad events.

Hugh, or the maestro behind him, is a grand puppeteer, using mime, suggestion, model re-enactments, performance art and a range of theatre techniques. These show us things from a distance, close up, from the outside and from the inside. Like a subtle television director, he endeavours to control our view.

Most fascinating is how he plays with the theatrical experience. We wonder who exactly is Hugh, and how much he relates to his creator, Shôn Dale-Jones. Whoever is behind Hugh is certainly no rep actor you'll see as Hamlet one week and Charlie's Aunt the next. Hugh is a growing, developing persona - a character in progress.

Hoipolloi had a hit with Floating earlier this year. This, for me, is very different but even better.

Ivan Howlett