It's Halloween – the perfect excuse to ponder the role puppets, particularly ventriloquists' dummies, play in the horror genre.

Three short operas showcase just how versatile and inventive puppet opera can be.

With the cast re-imagined as a flock of birds, this production creates a magical, otherworldly and threatening atmosphere that captures the essence of Shakespeare’s tragedy.

Using a modest mix of live action, glove and tabletop puppetry, two master storytellers transport us to the dusty, windswept home of a shepherd with a tree planting habit.

Using a mix of puppetry and live action, this show turns 'The Elves and the Shoemaker' into a potent satire about child labour and consumerism.

Clowning, physical theatre and delightful hand puppetry combine to tell the story of the minor characters from Hitchcock's 'The Birds'.

A feel good comedy show featuring space travel and Scottish rock, delivered with aplomb by a pair of grey woolly socks in a tartan booth.

If you've watched television at any point during the last forty years or so, you'll know Ronnie Le Drew. From his infamous turn as Zippy from Rainbow, to various characters from Roger and the Rottentrolls, he has quite literally done it all.

“Tradition is not tradition because it is old, but because it is alive.” As Mr Punch celebrates his 350th birthday, a host of academics and practitioners from around the world gathered to discuss the meaning and relevance of the great sinner in 2013.

A 45 minute frolic where jazz and comedy meet pure fun, ‘There’s a Monster in my Piano’ uses animation, hand and glove puppetry to charm its young audience.

A one-man show using muppet-style puppets, which tells the infamous story of the final moments of Hitler, Eva Braun, Goebbels et al in their underground bunker.

The clever conceit of ‘Sock Puppet’ is that the puppet on the end of the hand of struggling art school graduate Ralph Guiltless is indeed a sock – a haunted sock, possessed by the soul of a notorious Yorkshire art forger, who uses Ralph’s body to wreak revenge on the art professor and assorted others who betrayed him.