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Moc (The Power) Who's Pulling The Strings?
MANIPULATE
Moc (The Power) - Ljubljana Puppet Theatre
Who's Pulling The Strings?
MANIPULATE favourites Ljubljana Puppet Theatre are back with the UK premiere of 'Moc (The Power)' which uses puppetry, sound and objects to look at hegemonic systems of control and autonomy. Lorna Irvine found out more about the show's creation and creative process from the company.
Lorna Irvine: Your new show explores issues around power and control. Please tell us more?
Martina Maurič Lazar, co-director and actress:
The thematic starting point of the research in The Power was the "weakness of power". Relations between forces of power and weakness in the case of public figures, power-carriers, decision-making individuals. Depending on the topic and thinking about it, we quickly approached the glass material – strong and yet fragile, fascinating but breakable and above all translucent. Looking through glass, seeing something different from the outside perspective, rather than from the inside, seeing something zoomed in and out ... All of this coincided with our thinking on the subject of the weakness of power.
Our purpose with Jirka Zeman, with whom we live and create in different countries and theatre spaces, was to create a performance alone, in an isolated space. The space of the main two characters, which we expose in their intimacy, was also intimate. We decided to trust our intuition, to control and trust each other in what we were expressing and to see where our mutual understanding of the material will lead us. And we also had our puppet designer Gregor Lorenci as our third eye in the process.
Lorna Irvine: How did the pandemic affect your work?
Uroš Korenčan, General Manager:
The pandemic was a severe, structural cut into culture – especially into the field of the performing arts. Lockdown and discontinuation of performance seasons lasting for almost 2 years made many complex consequences. For theatre as an event facility mainly in direction of flexible planning; as a production house we adapted and created some shows for screening presentations and some for outdoor performing.
Many creative processes were prolonged in duration of study – which caused different results – not all of them positive.
The international exchange and collaboration was stopped and this is a serious threat to our field of work – specific knowledge is rare and must be shared and exchanged internationally.
Lorna Irvine: What is the most satisfying part of working with object manipulation?
Martina Maurič Lazar, co-director and actress:
Glass, as I said, is a very emotive material. Magnificent and yet contradictory in its appeal. We admire it and we want it, even if it cools us down, makes us shiver. We take it into our hands with respect, fear, and with it we feel more celebratory, sublime; in touch with something more important and special, exquisite.
All these emotions are present when animating our glass figures, lights, music and other objects in the show. Each performance is a celebration of intimate theatre, of a very special group experience between Jirka, me and the audience; and glass gives to all of us an additional feeling of uniqueness. There is always a possibility and danger that one of the pieces will break. We all know and feel that, and it makes our theatre experience very present.
Lorna Irvine: Do you think it's important to create a discourse with your work?
Martina Maurič Lazar, co-director and actress:
I think it's especially important to be internally connected to time, space and some general thought that surrounds us, that is a part of our actual society. If we are, our every honest artistic creation is already an up-to-date answer to the society we live in, the discourses that surround us and of which we are all part of. A work of art can thus reflect a subtle perception of the spirit of time and temperature of community living. Sometimes it offers us answers. And sometimes it doesn't look for them, but it looks at new aspects of human understanding, relationships between people, questioning the emotions and placement of people within the time and space that we experience together, but so very differently.
'Moc (The Power) ' is at Summerhall, Edinburgh, various times, Sat 4-Mon 6 February. £12, £10.
Lorna Irvine
