An Extravaganza of smiles

The professional puppet community is actually pretty close-knit, even though spread around the globe, and it was heartening and enlightening to witness performers dropping in on shows by their peers and clearly enjoying themselves as much as the audiences.

The female half of marvellous German group Theater Laku Paka provided wonderful live woodwind music for their Peter and the Wolf shadow puppet show on Friday night, but on Saturday morning she was sitting next to my grandchildren in the Newhampton car park clearly revelling in the antics of Belgian street performer Martin Lierman. It's Maurice (pronounced Morrice), all eyes and winks, and, as far as we could tell, gentle innuendo (it was in Flemish) who is pictured with Becc up there.

She and sister Jessica will probably be in the Wolverhampton Express and Star tomorrow (Monday) as well as they were snapped in typically 'tight and bright' evening newspaper style, as it's known in the trade, with Martin before his first show of the day.

He and all the other puppeteers were simply brilliant with the kids, and after most shows the audiences got a hands-on chance to see how it all worked - or, in the case of Rod, of Storybook Theatre, how it didn't work. He made a fabulous job of coping with a total blackout in the middle of his hilarious Summerset version of Three Pigs - yes, those three pigs.

Don't miss a chance to see some of these marvellous shows which have quite as much to offer the mums and dads as the kids. Shows featured on Saturday and many others will also be touring throughout the area in locations such as Sanders Park in Bromsgrove and the Museum of Cannock Chase, as well as programming with regional touring circuits, local authorities and all kinds of venues, not always theatres, throughout the West Midlands.

Alongside the public festival the Dynamics 09 team are delivering an extensive education and outreach programme in museums, early years' settings, and schools including those for pupils with special needs.

Artists performing in the festival will demonstrate their skills and encourage others to learn and create. Some of the festival's international visitors, Theater Laku Paka and Martin Leirman will be showcasing their particular brand of puppet theatre to young audiences in schools while many UK companies including Major Mustard, Objects Dart (who coped brilliantly with the wind in the courtyard on Saturday) and The Fetch will run puppet-making workshops using a range of materials and puppet styles, often leading to making short puppet plays to show others.

Go here for full details. You will really be missing out on some world-class entertainment if you don't see some of these shows wjhich run throughout the summer.

Also make sure you visit Bantock House in Wolverhampton - which is where the other Langley family snap was taken. The museum has a small sample portion of a much bigger exhibition about the history of Mr Punch. Excellent. And renewed aplogies to the attendant - we really weren't trying to steal your posters ... we thought they were free leaflets. As Son of Sid said, she now knows what a member of a Baltimore drug gang in The Wire feels like when they come under the scrutiny of a surveillance team.

Don't worry Bantock trustees, your leaflets are safe in her hands. It was really a very Mr Punch moment. For a fleeting moment I felt like brandishing the Mr Punch slapstick you can try out at the show.