Their greatest hit was their gruesome 1998 junk opera Shockheaded Peter (pictured), recently revived again with David Thomas and the Two Pale Boys, but this ceaselessly imaginative trio were incorporating puppets into theatre from the very beginning.
2. Julie Taymor
The glorious use of puppets in the muchloved musical staging of Disney classic The Lion King propelled their creator, Julie Taymor, into the limelight. She has certainly come a long way: last year, her 1984 production The King Stag was revived at the Barbican. Verdict? Not a patch on the lion.
3. Ronnie Burkett
Canadian puppeteer Burkett makes alarmingly life-like puppets whose emotional lives are almost as vibrant as those of human beings. His production Happy - part of BITE01 and, despite its title, actually about suicide - testified to the breadth of Burkett's singular skills: it was as much a play as it was a puppet show.
4. Nigel Jamieson
Jamieson was the chap behind the spectacular The Theft Of Sita - a joint Australian-Indonesian production which played at the Riverside last year. He used Indonesian shadow puppetry and blended the story of The Ramayana with contemporary Indonesian history.
5. Complicite
One of our most experimental theatre practitioners, this British company frequently incorporates puppets into its physical theatre productions - as those who saw the eerie production Light at the Almeida two years ago will eagerly testify.
