Manipulate Theatre Festival – Who's Pulling the Strings?

Puppet Animation Scotland's sixth annual manipulate theatre festival offers a program which ranges from re-tellings of old myths to disturbing, alternative visions of the future, blending physical theatre, innovative production design, animation and film, and a celebration of the art of puppetry. Exploring the edges of ‘visual theatre’ – a discipline that can combine acting, lighting, costume, animation and special effects, the manipulate 2013 program pushes the boundaries of the kind of stories it is possible to tell on stage, and offers a thrilling, involving alternative to the empty spectacle of big-budget, 3D blockbusters. “I think the best visual theatre, by not relying on the spoken word, has the potential to engage audiences on deeper, more visceral levels,” explains Simon Hart, the director of manipulate. “While words can often move us, the vividness and power of images can have an even more immediate and lasting effect.”

One show sure to cause a stir at this year's manipulate is To The End of Love, presented by Tip Connection; a re-telling of that goriest of fairytales, the myth of Bluebeard's castle. “This production is a very clear and imaginative retelling of the Bluebeard story from the viewpoint of the young bride,” says Hart. The wordless performance relies on physical gesture and response, and production design: “We read the body and facial language of the bride as she begins to realise that all is not what it seems!”

Tellingly, like the best horror movie monsters, the villain remains hidden for most of the piece: “Bluebeard appears only as an expensive well-tailored blue suit of clothes, so he is a cipher,” says Hart. “Other characters appear only as the clothes they wear, so they engage with the bride and relate to her only in the way she seems to wish them to.” The myth of Bluebeard is presented ambiguously, leaving it open to the audience to interpret whether the tale is actually taking place, or is a dark fantasy, imagined in the mind of the bride.

Another cornerstone of manipulate 2013 is puppetry. Often thought of as the province of children's entertainment – from Punch & Judy to The Muppets, puppets have been beloved by countless generations – there are older, darker traditions of puppetry, from the ancient Japanese art of Bunraku, with its intricate, carved models and focus on stories with mature themes, to the Kathputli tradition from India, a popular form of puppetry whose origins are thousands of years old. Then there are more modern puppet masters, such as Czech animator and puppeteer Jan Švankmajer. Puppetry can hold up a mirror to human nature, and tell stories that are fantastical, mythical and satirical in a unique and inventive way.

Neville Tranter's Schicklgruber deals with the story of Hitler's rise and fall, presenting a satirical take on the events portrayed in the movie Downfall, although Hart maintains that Tranter's production predates the Oliver Hirschbiegel film. “It is Tranter's most successful and well known production,” explains Hart. “Although Neville is Australian he has lived in the Netherlands for several decades. Perhaps this intimate outsider’s view of a European country which suffered considerably while being occupied during WWII is one reason why the production works so well.”

What is it about puppets that makes them such good vehicles for satire? “I think these puppets allow us to laugh safely at a very black situation,” Hart says. “Through the shape and style of the puppets Tranter can create caricatures, and emphasise physical and character traits – Hitler’s bulging, mesmeric eyes and thus his madness; Goebbels’ slyness; Goering’s fatness and absurdity – they are character traits we immediately relate to, and which would be very difficult to draw attention to easily in any other way. The puppets push the totally unattractive qualities of the characters to satirical levels, and by being able to laugh at them, we can recognise and explore the evil they created in a secure way.”

Final Space, Ocean Flight and Myth and Infrastructure are a trilogy of shows which use a combination of animation and physical theatre to tell stories with elements of fantasy and sci-fi. Final Space is about a woman who encounters a ‘dream-sucking machine,’ dealing with themes of identity, memory and the interaction of humanity and technology. Ocean Flight meanwhile is a re-telling of Charles Lindbergh's historic transatlantic flight, reinterpreted as a metaphor for the melding of man and machine. In Myth and Infrastructure, solo performer Miwa Matreyek invites us to enter a dream-like fantasy realm. All three performances use light, film and animation innovatively to tell their stories.

“The combination of live performers and film raises one's awareness and visceral responses to and appreciation of both elements of the performance,” Hart explains. “On a superficial level we can admire this combination of a completely controlled medium – the film – with the more unpredictable engagement of the live performer. On a deeper level I think through the successful interaction of both, we pay more attention to each element and its intrinsic value and contribution to the overall narrative.” For Hart, this combination has the edge on the CGI spectacle of Hollywood films: “Quite often with CGI and big Hollywood films the very impressive technical medium becomes the whole message because the development of the content has been neglected. This company has started from the three stories it wants to tell, and then articulated those narratives with the help of the chosen creative mediums.”

Another company participating in manipulate this year are Glasgow collective Buzzcut. The Buzzcut show features three solo performances: “Over the course of an evening audiences will experience intimate one-to-one theatre, be able to make a robot, meditate on the passing of time and mortality, have a drink and a laugh, and see a brilliantly weird take on the power dynamics of ballroom dancing,” says Hart. “I saw this last piece – Por Sal Y Samba – about three years ago and have wanted to programme it ever since, but it never quite fitted into a Traverse setting.” This year's festival sees shows taking place at the festival's original home at the Traverse, but also at Summerhall, the Lochgelly Centre in Fife, Aberdeen's The Lemon Tree, Glasgow's The Arches, and even as far afield as Norwich Puppet Theatre.

Hart has been involved in programming manipulate since its inception in 2008, and is passionate about its aims. “The festival is dedicated to bringing powerful visual theatre of the highest quality from around the world to Scottish audiences,” he says. “The event is also about providing a platform on which Scottish artists can engage – through the performances and / or accompanying workshops programme – with the work of international artists.”

Asked to tell us about some of the other highlights of the festival, Hart is enthusiastic. “After the Wave is the first full-length piece created by Scottish artists which we have programmed at manipulate,” he explains. The show is “inspired by images of tsunami victims huddled in cardboard box ‘homes’ and Maja Daniels’ baleful pictures of Alzheimer’s sufferers,” and uses life-size puppets, mask work and live music.

What audiences does Hart hope to reach with this year's manipulate? “Our audiences are typically students or recent graduates, young, very engaged, not afraid to be challenged out of their comfort zones,” explains Hart. “Technically savvy, they seek their information from the internet and peer groups, are actively interested in experienced new art forms, are comfortable with new technologies, and in cultural terms seek out the sort of imaginative creative hybrids the companies we programme at manipulate create.”

Puppets and animation are often seen as forms which are principally enjoyed by children. How does Hart see the adult audiences responding to their use in this context? “As children we all play with lifeless objects which, through play, we then invest with great symbolic life and value,” he says. “As adults we can all too easily lose this knack of accessing this immediacy, this world imagination and play, and our interior lives are poorer as a result. The best theatre can provide us with potential ways to re-enter these worlds, visual theatre even more so because, as long as we are willing at the start of a piece to enter the artist’s world, this less traditional world of performance creates its own context as it goes along, inviting us to take the journey with the performers and rediscover our own potential to be delighted and amazed."