Biography

James Frost is an artist, designer and puppeteer, experienced in outdoor theatre (as Theatre of the Small) and folk drama practices such as mumming and hoodening (with Trudgepig and the Canterbury Hoodeners). He works to commission in set design, prop, puppet and mask making. He curated the exhibition ‘Animal Guising and the Kentish Hooden Horse’ at Maidstone Museum in 2023 and published the accompanying exhibition catalogue.

He is an experienced educator and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, currently teaching modules in Theatre Design at Canterbury Christ Church University. He is a visiting lecturer in Design at Goldsmiths, University of London, Birmingham City University. 

Do you believe in fate?

A young man stumbles upon Death in the woods, practicing his fiddle. This hapless carpenter has heard the first part of an improvised tune played by Death on his fiddle made of bone. Now he is trapped in limbo: he has seen Death but cannot die until the tune ends. Luckily for him, the interruption has put Death off his stride.

The pair strike a bargain. If Death can finish the tune by sunset, he will claim the carpenter’s life for himself. If Death fails, the man will go free. Playing for time, the carpenter draws Death into talking about his music and the unlikely love story behind his fiddle.

The show will take place over a number of dates and locations in September and October of 2023. 

Following a successful Edinburgh run of Talk (2019) and a sold out run of Macbeth in The Westgate Towers Canterbury (2022), Parrot Theatre Company presents Death and the Carpenter, a darkly funny story that explores the universal themes of love, death, and fate. Adapted from a short story of the same name by acclaimed writer Sonia Overall, Death and the Carpenter reimagines death and mortality through the folk music of Greg Ireland and the puppetry of James Frost.

In a small clearing in a deserted woods, Death and the Carpenter gets to grips with the fleeting nature of time and the reality of losing the ones you love. Through simple story telling, this folktale immerses the audience into a world where death and beauty exist side by side and where death has a voice, a voice that rings loud and clear.

A promenade-style children’s show featuring three magical environments, animal puppets and a mermaid projection.