The biennial Manchester International Festival (MIF) regularly offers members of the community the chance to get involved in, or look behind the scenes of, their productions. The level of involvement might vary from helping prepare for a show to carrying a spear onstage but is always an interesting experience.
The opening event at the 2025 MIF is The Herds—a monumental migration of puppet animals on a 20,000km journey from the Congo basin to the Arctic Circle. The concept being the beasts are fleeing north to escape climate disaster and their journey has brought them to Manchester. One is tempted to remark they really took a wrong turn.
The displaced Herd will, if all goes to plan, arrive in Manchester City Centre, on 3 July 2025, with a view to interrupting an orchestral performance by Manchester Camerata, and will wander between Cathedral Gardens and Market Street. The Herd will seek sanctuary in nature on, respectively, 4 and 5 July by heading to the residential streets of Heywood and Pennington Flash Country Park in Wigan.
The Herds is brought to life by an international team led by Artistic Director Amir Nizar Zuabi and brings together leading artists and arts and educational institutions across Africa and Europe. There will be 70 life-sized puppets operated by local participants and volunteers.
I rather fancied being a puppeteer but couldn’t be sure I could access the sites in Rochdale and Wigan by public transport, so instead opted to take part in one of the free workshops, running until 19 June 2025, at which the puppets are assembled.
The workshops are held in Mayfield—a brownfield site, undergoing regeneration. Producers tend to stage events in the area when they are aiming for a gritty, edgy vibe. It was in this neighbourhood I was once verbally accosted by a male sex worker who had formed the impression I was trying to steal his trade. Very flattering but an obvious error—my patch is further down the road.
I’m always early, which results in me overlooking the industrial unit where the workshop is to be staged. The unit isn’t open when I arrive and the number is not clear, so I stride past and keep going, scrambling over the Mancunian Way and reaching Ardwick before I acknowledge my mistake. By the time I retrace my steps, it is easy to identify the venue by the number of people hanging around outside.
Information issued to participants mentions the assembly process will involve the use of paint and glue and recommends wearing suitable clothing. I show up in ratty old jeans and a hoody that has seen better days along with (having been to events in the Mayfield units before and knowing they are often unused and so unheated) a body warmer. Very nearly wore fingerless gloves. Being a Salford resident, am entitled to reduced price tickets at The Lowry and am heading to a show there after the workshop. I will, therefore, be attending a play about a homeless person while looking like a homeless person.
The inside of the unit looks like a surreal butcher’s shop. Carcasses of animals, in various stage of preparation, hang from rails. It offers a golden opportunity to see how the apparently complex puppets are assembled in a simple manner.
The centrepiece is a large puppet close to completion. I remark to an organiser it is a very impressive horse only to be told it is a wildebeest. Part of the concept for The Herds is that some of the animals should be native to Europe rather than Africa.
Practicalities determine the materials used. As MIF require 70 puppets and the puppeteers will have to carry them some distance, the materials must be inexpensive and light. Hence, lightweight balsa wood and a heck of a lot of paper, cardboard and glue.
A tubular hob connects a balsa wood torso to four legs, which are manipulated by a simple squeeze and release handle that tightens and loosens a cord. The animals are assembled in stages. The assembly process is not so complex as to deter volunteers, like me, who struggle to put together flatpack furniture. Putting together the torso (one of which I assemble) is a simple process involving inserting tab A into slot B and gluing together.
The torso is then reinforced by of layers of brown paper turned into papier mâché by endless amounts of glue. This is the promised messy side of the process, and feel chuffed I get to wear an apron. The atmosphere in the workshop is relaxed and chatty with participants encouraged to move around and try their hand at whichever job takes their fancy. There is no denying the childlike fun of using paint and glue to get messy.
Tables are set out for individual body parts—hooves, heads, torsos—and everything is bracingly simple. The antlers are made of sheets of cardboard cut using a template and glued together then covered in brown paper when the glue has dried. Strips of ripped cardboard are used to ‘fatten’ the body, adding mass and muscle, before features like tails and heads are added.
The Herd workshops are unlikely to help participants develop new skills. They are, however, a vibrant demonstration of the care taken behind the scenes at a major theatrical event and of the simple but effective ideas and sheer, sticky mess that lies behind the glitter of showbiz. If you fancy having a go, free tickets can be booked on the Factory International web site.