If there’s one thing that the annual Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival always delivers, it’s sheer range. The eighth iteration, running January 21 through February 1, features retellings of classics by Bhavabhuti, Shakespeare, Ibsen and Ursula K. Le Guin, plus a glimpse into Harlem history and a futuristic adventure with a reincarnated dodo. A free neighborhood tour and a Roald Dahl-inspired musical cater to young audiences, while adult offerings include late-night cabarets and a ribald exploration of puppet sexuality.
Equally eclectic are the puppetry styles and techniques on display, such as bunraku, shadow puppetry, marionettes, crankies and object-based works. Artists performing in the 2026 festival hail from Denmark, France, India, Norway, South Korea, Spain and the United Kingdom, as well as Chicago and other U.S. cities.
Since its inception in 2015, the festival has grown into the largest of its kind in North America, attracting a record 22,000 attendees in 2025. Founder and artistic director Blair Thomas partially credits this success to the festival’s consistent track record of meeting audiences’ high expectations since shifting from a biannual to annual schedule in 2022.
“It was this feeling that we’re really part of the culture in Chicago, and that we’re anticipated,” Thomas said of the 2025 festival. “People now remember it and carry it with them, and they bring that energy to the performances themselves,” he told the Tribune.
As the 2026 festival opener, Norwegian and New York-based company Wakka Wakka reprises “Dead As a Dodo,” a stand-alone play that also concludes the “Animalia Trilogy,” which the company performed in full two years ago. Another festival regular, French Norwegian company Plexus Polaire, lends a haunted house atmosphere to Ibsen’s 1879 play, “A Doll’s House,” with life-sized puppets, dead birds and a possessed choir. A second Plexus Polaire production, “Trust Me for a While,” blends horror and comedy to explore the strange relationship between a ventriloquist and his dummy.
Also coming from Europe is “La Méridienne” by France’s Théâtre de la Massue, an unconventional spin on dinner theater that combines a multi-course meal from Chicago chef Chris Sullivan with a short puppet play, performed one-on-one for each guest in a separate room. Danish company Sofie Krog Theatre sets its comic thriller, “The House,” in a family-owned funeral home, while England’s Blind Summit Theatre strikes a balance between filthy humor and frank conversations in “The Sex Lives of Puppets,” drawing on real-life responses to Great Britain’s National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles.
Fewer continents are represented in the 2026 festival compared to recent years, with just two non-European international productions, both from Asia. In “About Ram,” India’s Katkatha Puppet Arts Trust uses animation, digitally projected dance, masks and puppets to stage excepts from 8th-century Sanskrit writer Bhavabhuti’s version of the “Ramayana,” an ancient epic about an incarnation of the god Vishnu. Geumhyung Jeong, a multidisciplinary artist from South Korea, contemplates the interplay between technology and the human body in “Oil Pressure Vibrator,” a hybrid of film, lecture and performance art.
From Chicago, Emmy Award-winning ensemble Manual Cinema’s “The 4th Witch” reimagines Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” as a young girl’s quest for vengeance against a backdrop of generational violence. In “Rhynoceron,” Chicagoan KT Shivak and company use a life-size rhinoceros puppet to recount the history of humans hunting this remarkable animal.
Other U.S.-based productions include “The Matchbox Shows,” a miniature cabaret by Portland artist Laura Heit; the return of the popular “Nasty, Brutish & Short” late-night comedies, and the world premiere of “The Left Hand of Darkness,” an adaptation of Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1969 sci-fi novel. Plus, in a festival first, Thomas dons his performer’s hat in “Does a Dog Have Buddha Nature?” — a blend of live music (featuring local saxophone quartet ~Nois), shadow puppetry and a crankie comprising several hand-painted, 100-foot-long scrolls.
“The Harlem Doll Palace” brings a particularly personal touch from Alva Rogers, playwright, puppeteer and artistic director of the New York-based Alva Puppet Theater. With original music by Bruce Monroe, this historical play is based on the true story of Lenon Holder Hoyt, better known as Aunt Len, a public school teacher who created a doll museum in her three-story Harlem brownstone.
Before Aunt Len’s death in 1999, Rogers got to know her during several visits to the museum, which prompted the playwright to base her graduate thesis production on the doll museum and, years later, to create the current version of the play. Directed by Ash Winkfield, an all-Black cast of puppeteers portrays the stories of individual dolls inspired by Hoyt’s collection, from antebellum cloth dolls to a Thomas Edison talking doll.
“I want to continue telling the story of this ancestor, and all ancestors, because I want this history to be known,” Rogers said in a Tribune interview.
The festival wouldn’t be complete without its kid-friendly productions, and this year’s headliner is “The Enormous Crocodile,” a new musical based on the picture book by Roald Dahl. A cast of friendly animals — portrayed by designer Toby Olié’s colorful, whimsical puppets — helps young audiences learn about courage as they thwart a naughty reptile with an appetite for children. Already a hit in the UK, the show is now touring the U.S. for the first time, with Chicago marking its third stop.
“The mission of the work was to create an amazing, quality piece of theater for children and their families, because we believe that theater is an incredible space for engendering connection, community and belonging,” said director Emily Lim.
Lim’s approach complements the ethos of the festival’s annual neighborhood tour, which presents free, family-friendly shows in community venues across the city. This year’s tour includes two productions: “Stone by Stone,” by Spanish artist Tian Gombau, and “Happy Birthday, Mon Ami” from the Baltimore-based duo Alex and Olmsted.
Beyond this extensive performance lineup, the festival offers various activities for those who want to engage further: panel discussions, book talks, workshops, exhibitions and a pop-up shop and café at the Fine Arts Building. In short, it’s a puppet extravaganza with something for aficionados and newbies alike.
Emily McClanathan is a freelance critic.
The 8th Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival runs Jan. 21-Feb. 1 at various venues across Chicago. Visit ChicagoPuppetFest.org for schedules and tickets.
