The difficulty I have in writing this story is in not knowing where to start.
Should I start with The Odyssey, Homer's classic tale in which raging storms and supernatural forces prevail over one man's almighty quest to get home?
Or should I first explain The Paper Cinema?
A group of multi-talented artists: illustrators, puppeteers and exceptional musicians who between them and with tiny paper cut-out puppets create a silent film in front of your eyes set to a captivating score.
But what about the Battersea Arts Centre (BAC)?
Isn't that really where the story should begin?
The Guardian newspaper has described the Battersea Arts Centre as ''Britain's most influential theatre'', The Daily Telegraph calls it ''a cultural powerhouse'' and The Times, of London, says it is ''a dream factory generating the theatre of tomorrow''.
BAC is renowned for making some of the most cutting-edge new theatre in the UK, work that doesn't start life with a script, that blurs genres and thrives on experiment.
Nicholas Rawlings, the founder of The Paper Cinema says: ''BAC has created a hub where a great loose network of people develop and transform their work. Odyssey was created through their unique 'Scratch' process which allowed us to test our ideas early on in the creative process to get audience feedback.
''By commissioning Odyssey, BAC has enabled this great co-production.''
Now, out of the ''dream factory'', The Paper Cinema's Odyssey is today's theatre.
If you can imagine a live Disney film being created in front of you, you're halfway to understanding the audience experience.
Intricate pen and ink illustrations are manipulated in real-time in front of a live video feed and projected on to a big screen where Odysseus' epic voyage unfolds in front of you, choreographed to the live music performed by the company's three musicians.
The puppeteers, Rawlings and Imogen Charleston, manipulate more than 300 individual paper cut-outs.
The Times describes them as having ''immense skills'' and what they do as being ''ingeniously effective''.
Rawlings is more matter-of-fact discussing the mechanics of their performance.
''All the pieces are stacked and prepared before the show, they all have a defined part, as if you had a play with a cast of 300 and each actor only had a couple of lines each.
" Their action is defined by the music. Imogen and I have good visual memories so we can visualise the order - it is very much like laying out a comic book every night - imagine someone has taken out the staples of the book.
''The company works as an ensemble, the puppeteers are like musicians with puppets as instruments and the musicians' instruments are their puppets, we share and sway these roles.
''The live soundtrack features a violin, guitar and piano, and a number of effects such as the spitting sound of bubble wrap and the crunching of gravel.
''There are little lulls hidden in the show, for us and the audience to rest, and peaks where we really can't miss a beat, as in the arch of a good story.''
But what of the story?
Do you have to be familiar with Homer's tale to appreciate the journey?
Not according to Rawlings.
He believes people should think of the tale as a type of modern-day road trip, just ''hitchhiking around''.
Homer's hero Odysseus meets an array of characters, including a cyclops, whom he blinds, incurring the wrath of Poseidon.
Athena, goddess of wisdom, is portrayed in her owl form.
There's a visit to the Underworld, a motorcycle ride through Greece during which young Telemachus speeds past adverts for Helen of Troy beauty products, and voyaging on the high seas through raging storms.
The live film and the making of it, right in front of you, are as engrossing as each other.
As one reviewer put it: ''It's tempting to try to keep one eye on the operators and another on the screen in order to fully appreciate how all the different elements come together.''
As if the challenges of the performance weren't mentally testing enough, The Paper Cinema has at times thrown the vagaries of weather into the mix by performing outdoors.
''We have played outside in wind when we had to use our bodies to shield the puppets from gusts and then in rain when the audience kindly ran up and shielded us under a canopy of umbrellas, until the end of the show.
"There was a very quick applause before they too disappeared to shelter.
''We've played on 100ft high sea cliffs, on the banks of the Seine opposite Notre Dame, where our screen was a sheet strung between two trees.
"It is always magical to play outside but it does come with risks. We have even played at Glastonbury Festival in a tent when there was a flash flood. A river came down the middle of the ''cinema'' aisle! But the show goes on!''
So back to my original dilemma: where to start to try to explain what The Paper Cinema's Odyssey is all about?
On second thoughts, I think it best to repeat Rawlings' advice, ''just go see it''.
- Gillian Thomas
See it
The Paper Cinema's Odyssey: October 15-18, Kavanagh Auditorium.
Arts Festival Dunedin.www.artsfestivaldunedin.co.nz.
