SHADOW puppets created and operated by members of the Everyman Youth Theatre wowed visitors to Tate Liverpool yesterday.

The team of five teenagers gave two performances of Journey to the West, a story inspired by the famous puppeteers of the Far East.

A story of the search for home and immigration, the five-minute performance saw the youngsters combine puppets and shadow acting.

Rachel Riggs, director of the show from DNA Puppets and Visual Theatre in Preston, said: “The teenagers had to interpret a series of drawings to create a Liverpool story on the universal theme of journeys and trying to find home.

“They chose shadow puppets, as opposed to hand or finger puppets, as a quick and effective way of delivering the story.”

The project stemmed from drawings by the Xijing Men – artists Chen Shaoxing, from China; Gin Hongsok, of South Korea; and Tsuyosh Ozawa, from Japan.

Those artists created drawings inspired by the oral history of their countries for the Everyman Youth Theatre to use as the basis of a shadow play.

Journey to the West will be performed every Sunday at 2pm and 3pm, until February 1.