Tommy Luther (pictured) the play's puppetry director sets rigid ground rules for training the performers. [Photo by Jiang Dong / China Daily]

A couple of months later the National Theater of China began to scour China－the first time it has cast its net nationwide for audition candidates－looking for puppeteers for the piece. Of the 1,000 who auditioned, only about 50 came up to muster.

In April last year, Luther came to Beijing to choose the 19 finalists according to the rules he had set, then returned a couple of months ago to work with them for the premiere next month.

During a break in rehearsals recently, he told China Daily: "The first time you touch the puppet, the first time you try to manipulate the puppet, it's extremely difficult and it always looks a little ... strange. So it's very important to have focus, attention to detail, and to listen to each other and have no ego.

"It's an extraordinary experience in working with the actors. I was born in Portugal and trained in London, so I have a European mentality. For me, it's fresh and exciting to work with the Chinese actors including dancers, acrobats, Peking Opera performers, and they are from different regions of China.

"Every day is a fun day. We play games three or four times a day. During the games you can see the true spirit, the true personalities come out."

Liu Xiaoyi, who manipulates Joey's head and trains the Chinese puppeteers when Luther is not in China, says that when you work with puppeteers "the first thing to teach them is to make the puppet breathe".

"We work out the actual walk of the horse," says Liu, who is a dancer and choreographer and is the play's puppetry director.