Be Manipulated

Originally choreographed in 2001, Luvos is Editta Braun's savagely erotic response to genetic modification. Sinister and disturbingly sensual, Braun distresses and distorts the human body, using dance's potential for the expression of abstract ideas to picture an evolutionary process damaged by human meddling.

Simon Hart, who is bringing Luvos from Austria to Edinburgh as part of the Manipulate Festival, sees it as a striking example of how 'visual theatre' can reach the places where scripts might struggle. "For me, Luvos articulates in a very powerful and oblique way my fears and concerns about the results of global warming, and of uncontrolled genetic experimentations with elements of our natural world," he explains. "One of the strengths of a serious exploration of these themes in a piece like Luvos is that the series of beautifully disturbing images it presents engages my understanding and imagination at a more fundamental, non-verbal non-narratively linear level than a more overtly agitprop, spoken piece of theatre would do. In this way I find myself repeatedly considering these issues primarily through the vividness of the images that remain with me."

Hart, artistic director of Puppet Animation Scotland, which champions visual theatre and puppetry for both adults and children, is becoming one of the most important programmers in Scotland. Fearless in his selections – last year he included a meditation on brutal murder, while Manipulate 2012 connects political animated movies (Waltz with Bashir), Fringe successes (Polaris) and European experimental theatre – Hart has made a convincing case for drama beyond the traditional script. "I think the best visual theatre has the potential to engage with its audiences in more varied – and dare one say, at times in more profound – ways than text-based theatre. Individuals watching a visual piece like Luvos will engage with and interpret its powerful images each according to his or her’s own personality and history," he admits. "Potentially, there are as many different nuanced responses to one of Manipulate’s productions as there are audience members. Certainly in my experience the range and passion of comments and discussions one hears in the bar afterwards backs this up!"

Manipulate's past productions – including rising stars 1927 from England, famed for their wry fusion of vintage style with an almost Soviet austerity, and Germany's Figuren Theatre Tubingen who take old school puppetry and fuse it with other arts – has defined the Festival as far more than a simple selection of puppets and cartoons. Hart's use of the term 'visual theatre' is a careful nod to his eclectic choices, but also defines a broad category that approaches performance without founding it, necessarily, on a known text. As Hart acknowledges, this sort of work is often marginalised in Britain. "I think the shadow of Shakespeare, and our strongly word-based theatre tradition and practice in Scotland and the rest of the UK, makes it harder for practitioners round the edges – in visual or physical theatre, dance and mime etc – to find the room and the resources to create work successfully," says Hart. "This pre-eminence of our great, primarily literary, theatrical heritage can be a real double-edged sword at times, and the development of newer theatrical forms and means of expression can at times suffer as a result." So while Manipulate's shows are individually evocative and emotive, the overall programme becomes a manifesto for a way of creating art.

Referring to Luvos, Hart believes that "it is harder to ignore those troubling pictures that arise from our unconscious fears and pre-occupations that a piece like this can evoke, than reasoned, logical verbal expositions about these important issues." Admirably, Hart sees this immediacy as having a social consequence. "Therefore, we might then do more about them."

Given the seriousness of this year's content – Waltz with Bashir looks at war crimes, Off to the Asylum studies madness, The Great Puppet Horn comes back with some satire – Hart's vision advocates the potential of theatre as part of public debate. And in a time when Scotland is looking hard at its own sense of identity, Manipulate manages to both support local creativity and present the best of the world's work. "We have so many really talented and passionately committed visually-orientated theatre practitioners in Scotland. Manipulate offers members of this community a powerful focus that provides creative nourishment and inspiration through engagement with the best international work we can bring to Scotland. We have a strong aspiration that over the next five years Scottish artists will provide Manipulate with work of the highest quality and ambition that will stand securely alongside these international productions, and that we can then promote and tour this work abroad. That's the challenge we would like to extend to Scottish artists!"

And as if to demonstrate that nothing is beyond Manipulate's interest, and that there is no theatre that cannot be energised by an infusion of puppetry, even one of Shakespeare's most over-produced, and consequently played-out, specials is getting an injection, as Hart clarifies. "I wanted to bring Hamletmachine to Manipulate partly because the company, Theatre Sans Soucis, started with the words and then transformed them – and their meaning – through primarily visual means of great vividness and power. I believe it's up to each individual audience member to intuit the meaning of the images they experience in front of them and relate them to the words they are hearing – and seeing – at the same time. And that journey of discovery will be unique to every person. For me that's one of the great joys of Manipulate – the great variety of different responses to the same piece, and the passion with which our audiences will articulate them." And Hamletmachine has the qualities that have become a trademark of Manipulate's programme.

Hart continues: "This is a very stylish European production which combines many elements of current visual theatre practice – object manipulation, projection and animation of images, voice-overs and complex soundscapes – as well as lots of water – to articulate and illuminate a 'difficult' text." From its first stirring up in Dundee, to its current incarnation as part of The Traverse's recent attempts to redefine itself as a 'theatre of new writing,' Manipulate has always been about the challenge. Once Hart had demonstrated that puppetry wasn't just for kids, he started to include choreography, expanding his definitions of visual theatre, supporting local artists like Pony Pie (creators of the excellent How Keanu Reeves Saved the World) and integrating animated cinema, short compilation shows and major pieces from around the world into one of Scotland's most important theatre festivals. Only New Territories has a similar intelligence and eclecticism, combining a curatorial focus with a willingness to find radical, experimental creativity. "Quality aside, I have not yet seen something that I would consider too extreme to include in a Manipulate festival programme," Hart concludes. "I always aim to programme work, like Jerk [a monologue based on the true story of serial killings] during Manipulate 2011, that has the potential to challenge and disturb habitual assumptions."