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Organillo
Performer - Stephen Mottram
Director - Deana Rankin
Puppets and automata designed and made by - Stephen Mottram
Stage Designer - Simon Scullion
Lighting Designer - Kenneth Parry
Lighting Performed by - Stephen Everett
Composer - Sebastian Castagna
Company - Stephen Mottram's Animata Co-commissioned by Pegasus
Theatre Oxford
Venues & Dates - In Scotland Byre Theatre St Andrews 24 September
at 8:30pm and The Lemon Tree Aberdeen 26 September at 7:30pm
Seen to review at Byre Theatre St Andrews
Run Time - 1 hours without interval
Reviewer - Thelma Good
Stunning despite backeddies
On the darkened stage two lit things at first the lights in the auditorium
are on while we hear strange circusy music. This is the sound of an *Organillo
it has its own solo spot at the performances end. But Stephen Mottram's
got some breathtaking experiences for us first , even though its not always
easy to follow or find a connection in the scenes, their conception and
development does have flaws. Sometimes not enough evolves in a scene or
you are left too long in the dark, but despite these backeddies, visions
are what you take away.
From the moment the lights are down and the lit things begin to turn you're
plunged into worlds. It seems to start underwater, for the things look
like tube worms, and soon a shoal of fishes come to turn in unison Loosening
these sea images a strange being swims lyrically into view, a what? It
seems to have arms and legs and a long body, swimming like us but it has
huge eyes and a central ridge down the back of its skull.
Then bubbles appear from fishes and the humanlike swimmer and the images
side slip, into the circular egg shape and cyclical release, images from
literally our insides. There's a man who checks eggs giving each a date
for release, one later strips off it's outer covers to enable fishlike
sperm to impregnate her. In another magical moment we see the fish moving
inside the egg - but is it still the sperm or the recently formed new
begin? With its tall still visible out of the egg the he-like fish and
the she-like egg do not quite become an new one.
And that's the problem with this often visually stunning production, it
certainly delivers fabulous images and changes in perspective, the swimming,
disembodied hands, the glowing, moving eggs. But they are in this mechanically
and electronically aware century, ones whose technical techniques we can
explain or at least guess at. With modern scepticism and scientific knowledge
most of us are bereft of the mediaeval belief in magical powers. We need
more varied flow in pace and narrative surprises in the hour to keep us
suspended from those modern awarenesses, to be wholly delighted as we
watch the birth and transformation of visionary, extraordinary universes.
© Thelma Good 24 September 2002. - Published on EdinburghGuide.com
*Organillo - This is a wee mechanical street organ
which is still played in many South American cities today. It's about
the size of a portable TV and looks, like at least in the one Stephen
made, like a mid-century radio set with the pipes visible where the speaker
front would be. It's made of wood and metal mainly, the air is drawn into
the instrument by bellows, and the air is then forced out under pressure
directed into the pipes by holes in a paper roll. To play it you turn
a handle. It's a a simple form of sequencer and the hand punched paper
roll is really a programme you could see the Organillo as a precusor of
a MP3 player.
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