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A play especially written by the artists for Cynan Davies a puppeteer of international repute telling ‘his tale’ and in turn offering ‘what meaning can be taken from it’. Davies performs with a pair of bone ash and mud hand puppets voicing the parts in collaboration with actors Tom Bevan and Victoria Gould.


With: Heather & Ivan Morison

Cynan Davies is a puppeteer of international repute known for his inventiveness and dark mythic creations. His life and career to date has been an extraordinary journey, one of shocking hardship and heartbreaking loss.

In Empire of Dirt, a play specially written for him by Heather and Ivan Morison, he tells for the first time his tale and searches for what meaning can be taken from it. Empire of Dirt sees a Davies, single puppeteer sat atop an umpire’s chair operating new and old mud hand puppets to act out a story of love lost through the slow atrophy of desire in a time of hardship and depression.

Heather and Ivan Morison have regularly used puppetry within their work, most notably with the ambitious work Mr Clevver a traveling sculptural artwork in the form of a puppet theatre, which toured small rural settlements in western and north-western Tasmania. 

Cynan Davies will work with a pair of bone ash and mud hand puppets that have been with him for many years. For Empire of Dirt he has collaborated with the actors Tom Bevan and Victoria Gould to develop voices for the puppets asking Bevan to voice his own parts.

Duration: 30 minutes 

Empire of Dirt was originally commissioned by Radar, Loughborough University for the series Object Theatre in 2012

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