Wonderfully atmospheric music greets the audience on their entry to Divadlo na Pradle for the Open Arts company's performance of Karagiozis Exposed. The puppeteer is himself exposed on stage before disappearing behind the beautiful  three dimensional screen to begin the show. The screen is  much more elaborate than a typical shadow puppet screen  and, as the traditional Karagiozis puppets are painted, the  screen is lit from both back and front.  The boundary formed by the screen, and the breaking of that  boundary, are the central concepts of the show. It can be  exciting and challenging to explore the lines between  puppet and puppeteer, puppeteer and performer and performer  and audience. However while this performance is interesting,  it rarely achieves excellence.

 Puppets demand great focus from their puppeteers and their  audience. It is a pity to spoil this focus with almost  constant surtitles on the upper part of the screen. To  ignore the titles meant to miss much of the humour and  story. To read them meant to lose focus on the puppets. Perhaps I should learn Greek.

 In fact the best moments in the show were physical, not  verbal, when the puppet wordlessly crossed into the outside  world. In human form, Karagiozis struggled with his still  strung limbs, his shocked puppeteer and his own  voicelessness. This struggle was strong, particularly when  Karagiozis, again a puppet, fought to break back into the  human world. His trapped emotions eventually found voice - in French - and the explosions of percussive music  were  superb.  The concept deserved better throughout. These affecting moments lacked dramaturgical support and the show sometimes  lacked precision. Maybe the frustrated Karagiozis puppet  could also see his own greater potential and wished to do  better.