The Orange Box is a delightful family show, a meld of puppetry and circus, well timed for the school holidays. I saw the show towards the end of its national tour, at Uxbridge centre in Howick, in a theatre full of excited whispers and craning necks.

Ana Lorite and Sergio Aguilar are artists originally from Spain – Lorite as a puppeteer and maker of puppets and Aguilar is circus performer. They have been making shows with their company Naranjarte since 2011, continuing when they moved to Aotearoa in 2020. Their work has a European aesthetic, the characters reminiscent of magic beings in European folk tales and the themes universal. The Orange Box has been directed by Katrina Chandra, a New Zealander now based in Perth. The company says on their website that they regularly tour and teach in Europe.

Lorite and Aguilar give us an inventive show, using a huge variety of theatrical magic makers: life size bunraku-style puppets, marionettes, body puppets, shadow play and projected light on screens. This is merged with Aguilar’s juggling skills: appearing to make balls float in midair or LED poi. The oos and ahs from both kids and adults show that the glitzy lights hit home, but the quieter moments get a response too.

The Orange Box is a fantasy with a timeless message about play and transformation. A life size puppet, a stick figure made of paper, works in a soulless depot, stamping and transferring packages. But one day he receives a parcel of his own – an orange box, which has been sent by a mysterious benefactor. As he unpacks the box and plays with each item – a scarf, a wig, a pair of magical balls – he begins to change – outwardly as well as inwardly.

Both performers have expressive faces and there are some clever reveals. With just two performers moving between a huge array of tools there are bound to be some tricky moments of changeover, but a recorded musical soundtrack sustains the energy and it gives us time to reflect on what might be happening. The show has no dialogue – characters make themselves clear with expression and sounds. Lorite and Aguilar know their audience and a fart joke, some awkward middle-aged stretching, and a backside scratch get the laughs they deserve.

As a beginner puppet maker myself, I was intrigued by the innovative, sometimes very complicated theatrical ‘makes’. There has clearly been a huge amount of devising, landing on some fun sequences – my favourite was the series of ‘transformations’ using coloured liquids in shadow play, a real X-ray, and some fun references to sci-fi movies. While at times the storytelling could have been clearer, the quiet absorption in the room showed that the target audience of kids didn’t care – they just loved it all.

I loved that after show officially ‘ended’, it didn’t – Lorite and Aguilar turned on the house lights and answered questions for another 15 minutes. No question was too direct, and their passion for what they did was obvious. One kid got to go up on stage and operate a puppet and experience the audience applause for herself.

Arts on Tour should be celebrated more for the role it has played in bringing performers like these to regional theatres (presumably Howick, being 30 mins from the CBD, counts). It’s fantastic that they have chosen to program a family show over the school holidays. I think The Orange Box would easily sustain a season in a central Auckland venue too – hopefully it will get picked up for a  festival or by a central venue’s programming team.

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