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The Man Who Planted Trees, a beautiful puppet tale based on French author Jean Giono’s 1953 environmental cult classic, is a multi-sensory story told with handmade puppets, wind that really blows and rain that gets you wet.

Renee Liang talked to co-performer and creator Richard Medrington.

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The Man Who Planted Trees, a beautiful puppet tale based on French author Jean Giono’s 1953 environmental cult classic, is a multi-sensory story told with handmade puppets, wind that really blows and rain that gets you wet.

Renee Liang talked to co-performer and creator Richard Medrington.

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Since it premiered in 2006, The Man Who Planted Trees has toured the world, being performed in venues from tents on windswept hillsides, tiny village halls on remote Scottish islands, to the Lincoln Center Institute and the Sydney Opera House.

Lovingly created by co-performers Richard Medrington and Rick Conte with puppet and set design by Ailie Cohe, it’s a multi-sensory story told with delightful handmade puppets.

How did you become a puppeteer?

I came to puppetry from a background in mime, street theatre and storytelling.

What tales are best told by puppetry?

We think the most important thing is to find a story you believe in and want to tell. If puppets help you to bring that story alive, then use them.

Why do you think children (large and small) are drawn to puppet theatre?

This is a great mystery. Somehow we suspend our disbelief when we see what we know to be an inanimate object "brought to life". As children we love to play and make-believe, and perhaps most of us never lose this ability.

How do you conceive and design a show like this?

First, find good collaborators! Working with brilliant designer and maker Ailie Cohen, who also happens to be an experienced puppeteer, was a great help. Rick Conte, who I perform with, is a tremendous puppeteer with a real gift for improvised comedy. It can be a long journey from a simple story to a simple dramatisation of that story, and for us it involved a few detours and wrong turns. Ailie and I would have elaborate ideas while Rick was the one who kept bringing us back to the simplicity of the story.

This seems to be a very universal tale. Do audiences everywhere respond the same?  Has anyone started planting trees after seeing the play?

Jean Giono's story has inspired many people since it was first published in 1953. For example, thanks to the Trees for Life project, which was directly inspired by the story, so far 5 million children in the UK have been involved in planting trees. Sometimes tree saplings are given to audiences after the show and it's great to see the instant impact of the story, particularly as Jean Giono said he wrote it "to make people love trees and love planting trees". However, it's a really a story about hope, not just trees. And it's about recognising a need and realising that the person to do something about it might be you.

You have performed the play everywhere - from tiny to huge venues. Where have been your favourite places, and why?

The Lincoln Center Institute in New York, where we performed in 2010 and 2011, dedicated an entire semester to working in local schools dealing with issues raised by the story, and got children of all ages making puppets as well. And we also liked New York!

You want to tour the play until 'everyone has seen it.' What are your next plans?

We were perhaps a little ambitious there! But we plan to keep touring for as long as we can.

• The Auckland Arts Festival 2013 is on from 6 to 24 March