PUPPET State Theatre, winners of the Total Theatre Award 2008 for Story Theatre, visit York Theatre Royal for the first time to perform The Man Who Planted Trees as part of the first week of TakeOver09.

Jean Giono’s story of a French shepherd and his faithful dog setting out to plant a forest and transform a barren landscape will be performed at 1.30pm and 6pm from Tuesday to Thursday, with a blend of comedy, puppetry, storytelling and the smell of lavender.

“We came across Giono’s tale of a tree-planting shepherd in 2005 and were struck not only by the beauty and simplicity of its message, but also its prophetic relevance to our times,” says Richard Medrington, director of the Edinburgh company.

“We’ve now performed this show more than 800 times, all over the UK and Ireland and in such far-flung places as Bermuda, Kuala Lumpur and Ohio.

“Our adaptation is light-hearted and funny, but we’ve tried to stay faithful to the original and many people say afterwards that they’ve laughed and cried.”

Now York awaits. “We’re really looking forward to coming to TakeOver09,” says Richard. “It will be the first time we’ve performed in York and our next stop – appropriately enough – will be New York, where we have a two-week run at a Broadway theatre.”