Thursday 24 January 2013

Amit Drori

Amit Drori an Israeli puppeteer this evening at The Barbican in the Pit followed by an aftershow discussion. He has put an obsessional amount of work into his robotic animals....a turtle, an elephant mother and child, a crane, and a gazelle...incredibly whimsical almost swallowed by the stage. I felt that there was too much clutter on the stage with the wooden boxes which seemed just like haphazard packing crates and pointed to the idea of a show touring....and the work behind the scenes, but the Japanese tree which they assembled was light, cut beautiful angles and went with the mood of the Savannah and the Indian music wafting in. It was hard to piece together the story. There were snippets of ideas.....his mother's piano....then elephants in the Savannah.....I felt like it was a work in progress which grew out of the robotics which obviously had been lovlingly and thoughtfully produced. I feel like they need more space for the robotics to interact and more choreography. I was also not sure of the intent of the tent. They assembled a tent and stayed in it for a while while maeuvering the puppets. However, if they wanted to hide, I think that something less literal would be fitting. The tent takes on a whole different meaning in itself and I was not satisfied that it worked itself into the storyline. In the discussion, Amit explained that he just wanted to put a tent on the stage and camp out.....perhaps in relation to it being a travelling show....but I felt it was not necessary. Although, this might sound critical, it was an enjoyable piece to watch.

Saturday 19 January 2013

Saturday-Theatre

Hard to get Ben out today, but got him to do his math and writing homework. V came over and we went to Jacksons Lane to see a one man show from the mime festival. Best part, he had a huge steel wheel that he got inside and rolled around on stage meanwhile juggling...each ball a different name of a past girlfriend, telling snippets of his life in prison...quite spotty...not sure if he really was....didn't make a convincing ex-con apart from the muscles....a dove coming down from the ceiling while he was playing guitar...sort of cabaret mixture. Italian. Tube down, but made it in time as they started the performance late because of it. Subway for Ben afterwards in Camden town. Told we had to leave after purchase...take away only. Not stepping out into the cold with a child who can barely hold one of those big sandwiches. Some police order about no seated customers after 8pm. No one else in the shop. Use your pea sized brain...look around. Is that really breaking the law? Eating a sandwich while standing up in a take-away? too bad.. Arrest me. Sort of attitude these sandwich makers have....why they never get ahead. I find rules like that extremely tedious and ever more present...and the people who have to enforce them get paid minimum wage. Pathetic. 

Tuesday 8 January 2013

Televisions From Other Galaxies

Televisions from Other Galaxies.....silkscreen print exhibited at Summer Exhibition of Royal Academy. This print was inspired by Chinese pictograms and heiroglyphs.