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Manipulate 2023: Moc and Before Thumbelina

Gareth K Vile

If manipulate is founded in Puppet Animation Scotland’s curation, its welcoming attitude towards performance across the spectrum of ‘visual theatre’ is inclusive but still involves puppetry as an important feature. From Moc (the Power), through Before Thumbelina to Minnie Rubenski, the programme has a strong core of works that explicitly deal with the puppet tradition, shedding light on the notion of visual theatre itself and celebrating the possibilities of object manipulation.

Although PAS and manipulate have supported Scottish makers, the Scottish puppetry community extends out into the broader theatre landscape, with companies such as Clydebuilt, who present work for young people, alongside Vision Mechanics’ experimental bent. Moc and Before Thumbelina, however, speak to a distinctive element of PAS’ aesthetic, being international work from nations that have a long-standing tradition of puppetry but also concentrate on experimental approaches.

Moc is a particularly bold example of how Slovenian puppetry can subvert expectations: the puppetry is not an imitation of the human actor, but a complementary force that, at times, imprisons the human to create an almost morbid atmosphere. With one performer operating the objects and another caught inside their web, it is by turns funny and sinister, more concerned with an ambiguous emotional landscape than a traditional narrative, chasing the surreal into dark landscapes that question the power of human agency and control over the inanimate.

Before Thumbelina has remarkable slight of hand magic, choreography and object manipulation, all combining to transform the familiar folk-tale into a reflection on fertility and desire. The seeds and soil become a vivid metaphor for the processes of conception. Again, a dark stage foregrounds the performer and plunges the audiences into the shadows, using the familiarity of Thumbelina to open up a mature contemplation.

These works challenge the identification of the puppet with easy storytelling, suitable for all the family: their tones seem closer to Performance Art’s intense sensibility, their content provocative and mysterious. Here puppetry not only embraces its visual theatricality, but dives past characterisation, narrative and spectacle, to examine complex ideas both intellectual and emotive.

Manipulate maintains a programme of emerging artists, but in these works provides a specific service: these are works that are unlikely to appear elsewhere in Edinburgh – too niche and intense for the Fringe, and not necessarily fitting thematically or stylistically into the programme of other festivals. Their presence alongside more dance-focused events, such as Eidos or 40/40 locates puppetry within a particular strand of visual performance, but is also a reminder of the medium’s versality and impact.