Dawn Taylor introduces MANIPULATE 2023
For its first in-person festival since 2020, Puppet Animation Scotland's MANIPULATE festival promises a bill full of genre innovation and challenging stories
MANIPULATE, Edinburgh’s international festival of visual theatre, puppetry and animated film, is back fully in-person for the first time since 2020 with a curated festival of the best visually driven work from Scotland and around the world. Aiming to push boundaries, play with form, and challenge perceptions, the diverse works on offer at MANIPULATE explore the many ways that stories can be told beyond language.
For Dawn Taylor, MANIPULATE’s Artistic Director, the return to a fully live festival is also an opportunity to expand across Edinburgh: February will see events in four performance venues alongside site-specific installations. “We’re hoping to reach new audiences,” says Taylor, “the people who don’t yet know that these art forms hold something for them.” She describes the focus of the festival as “work that is visually led, that breathes life into the inanimate and engages different parts of the brain.”
MANIPULATE was founded 15 years ago to celebrate visual theatre and visually led artistic work, which Taylor says was missing from the cultural landscape of the UK at the time. The founder, Simon Hart, was inspired by the rich traditions of visual theatre in Central Europe. He wanted to create a platform that would bring some of the best performers in these forms to Scotland, and provide concrete opportunities and support for Scottish practitioners. His approach was clearly effective: the first festival line-up was 75% international work, while 2023 will showcase 75% Scottish talent.
Because MANIPULATE is a curated festival, Taylor and her colleagues can ensure that every piece in the programme meets the highest standard of artistic excellence while also showcasing a range of art forms, palettes, tones, voices and stories. In a traditional curation model, one person will spend their time travelling around in search of new work, with inclusion coming down to their particular taste and artistic sensibility. MANIPULATE, however, has been experimenting with ways to democratise and broaden this process. Supported by Creative Scotland’s Radical Care project, MANIPULATE 2023 welcomed a curatorial team with a wide range of artistic backgrounds, including dance, children’s theatre, and community engagement.
Moč (the Power) by Ljubljana Puppet Theatre, appearing at MANIPULATE. Photo: Urska Boljkovac
The artistic shape of the overall festival is driven by what creatives around the world are exploring at the present moment. While the programme is difficult to summarise, Taylor says that there’s a strong sense of “reclamation and retelling”, and of exploration of “hidden things, shining light on hidden stories and hidden voices.
“It’s been a hard few years and this is a hard winter for a lot of people. People deal with it in different ways. We’ve got work that’s really exploring that, and also work that’s providing some space away from it.”
So, are there any particular works to look out for? In the international programme, Taylor spotlights Before Thumbelina, an object theatre work from Finland about “fertility, womanhood and the expectations that are placed on us. If people aren’t sure whether visual theatre is for them, this is the one they should see.” On the Scottish side of things, Suzi Cunningham’s double bill of Rules to Live By and Eidos offers a different tone with a dance-based tribute to punk. There’s also The Fantastic Life of Minnie Rubinski by Scotland-based Vision Mechanics, featuring puppets Taylor describes as “just exquisitely, beautifully made…This is the sort of mastery of craft that takes years.”
Finally, for those not in Edinburgh, MANIPULATE’s film programme will be available online to anyone in the UK. The selected short films include works from 18 countries around the world, six of which are entirely new to the festival. In addition to the Animated Highlights programme, Animated Womxn celebrates women and nonbinary filmmakers working in a “dizzying range of styles.” Both film programmes will also be screening live at Fruitmarket.
MANIPULATE runs 2-12 Feb at Summerhall, the Studio @ Festival Theatre, Traverse Theatre, and Fruitmarket