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.