Just A Quickie with... John Barber, Leeds puppet maker, designer, animator and actor, whose grotesque creations are stalking Macbeth at York Theatre Royal.

How did your involvement in Macbeth come about?

"It must be about a year ago that artistic director Damian Cruden got in touch because he was interested in playing the violence in Macbeth fully, and the way to do that was to do it literally but to stylise it with puppets.

"The idea then evolved that I should be in the show too John plays Ross, since I was already running around doing puppet training sessions with the cast, and I was delighted."

What does the use of puppetry bring to this production of Macbeth?

"It ties in very well with the idea of it being an unnatural world. There are dead things moving about, which is a pretty unnatural concept! I think adult audiences do find it surprising, and there's also a certain amount of humour that's allowable, like when Macbeth has completely lost the plot and he's having this whole phantasmagoric experience with multiple puppet figures. If you take something to the scary limit, there's something slightly comical about it."

What attracts you to puppetry?

"It can bring the impossible to the stage. You can do terrible things to puppets that you can't do to actors. There's something alienating about them: you never forget that they're puppets and nor should you.

"They can be useful to unnerve the audience, and then there's the visual element as well. They're unusual things to look at, and adults often respond well to them because puppetry tends to be a novelty for them."

You trained in puppetry at Theatre Minor in Prague and puppets became a trademark of your production in your decade as artistic director of Open Hand Theatre. How will you spread the puppet gospel further?

"I'm teaching on the design course at the puppet institute in Charleville, France, this summer for the first time. That will be very interesting.

"Obviously I'd like to do more puppetry at the Theatre Royal: it's been a thoroughly enjoyable experience from design to rehearsals and performing, and the cast's commitment to working with them has been very good. A puppet is only 50 per cent of the story, because it's only theatrical when it's animated well; otherwise it's just an object being carted around a stage."

Macbeth, York Theatre Royal, until March 19. Box office: 01904 623568.

Updated: 15:47 Thursday, March 10, 2005