Merma Never Dies

Posted by hil

Miroa

Last weekend the Tate Modern in London hosted a new production of Mori el Merma, which was first performed in 1978, and emerged out of a collaboration between the surrealist painter Joan Miró and La Claca, an experimental theatre troupe from Barcelona, headed by Joan Baixas. In the new revision,

‘… Joan Baixas evokes the critical spirit of Mori el Merma and recovers Miró’s original idea to make a street parade in the Catalonian tradition. Baixas’s work insists on the idea of the absurdity of power, the abuses of the tyrant and the impertinences of dictators, themes which are ever present and must be critised and
denounced.

‘The puppets are replicas made under supervision and control of the Succesió Miró SL and range from giants with the heads of monsters, grotesque torsos and six-foot-long arms to creatures that whisper and
squeal as if Miró’s free-form shapes had to leapt to life.’

In an article in the Guardian, Baixas comments that the play has been retitled Merma Never Dies, because almost 30 years later, Merma is alive and well:

‘The name is unimportant because, unfortunately, there are many Mermas now. In recent years we have seen leaders who wage wars with lies and who play games with democracy. The least we can do is laugh at them.’

I’ve come across the following accounts and photos of the performance and parade. It looks pretty bizarre!

Cronicas desde Londres: photos and video
Yahoo News collection of photos
No-necked Monster’s photos and video

Welfare State International comes to an end

Posted by hil

John Fox, the artistic director of the renowned celebratory street theatre company, Welfare State International – ‘eyes on stalks, not bums on seats” – explains how bureacracy kills the creative spirit, and why he is going solo.

‘The final straw? The ‘hot work’ permit for a bonfire in a field.
Had we swept the floor, and were the overhead sprinklers working?’

Welfare State came to an end on April Fools’ Day this year, after 38 years.

Some thoughts on the miners’ interview

Posted by hil

I watched the Ch. 9 interview with the two rescued Beaconsfield miners on Sunday night, and far from being bored, was quite fascinated. Some thoughts:

I was rather touched to watch how they were still taking care of each other. If one was struggling to keep his emotions in check, the other stepped in to relate something funny, or change tack, or give a reassuring touch, while he gathered himself together.

There was not one mention of god or praying. Their spiritual sustinance had been thoughts of their families and taking care of each other. I wonder if this secular aspect would be allowed to persist in a Hollywood version of their story.

These big boofy guys were wonderfully resilient and resourceful. They had good sense and medical knowledge and used them. One was less articulate than the other, but as someone here said, he pegged out the four corners of what he wanted to say, and left you to fill in the middle. I liked that description.

Channel 9 were really lazy. Their editing was sloppy, and they used an old graphic of the men’s position, obviously from a few weeks ago, presumably because they hadn’t been bothered to do a new one with the info the men provided. But I was glad the interviewer for the most part just let them talk without much interuption.

Robot family

Posted by hil

Robot2

Mimi has added three new robots to her robot family. Some are more like pillows, while others, like this guy, are fully articulated, but they are all really cool.

Pink shoes

Posted by hil

Pink shoes

Some large pink snake-skin shoes I made recently for Jigsaw Theatre Company’s production Little Brother Big Sister, design by Imogen Keen. I had fun with the curly thing at the back.

Xperimental Puppet Theater, 2006

Posted by hil

Also at Flickr today is swestdahl’s photoset of images taken at XPT 2006, Xperimental Puppet Theater, which is on this weekend at the Centre for Performing Arts in Atlanta. There is a brief description of the 8 pieces here, and the XPT blog is giving a nice look at the whole process behind the scenes. I’ve been enjoying putting the two sets of images together, for instance, seeing a puppet behind the scenes, and then in performance.

Pickled Image: The Chatterbox

Posted by hil

Pickledimage

Skip the Budgie at Flickr has a cool photoset of action images taken during a performance of the Pickled Image show, The Chatterbox. There is more information, pictures and storyboard illustrations here on their site. They make and use various styles of puppetry and puppets. One of the styles I like is where the puppet has one hand that is actually the puppeteer’s, and one not.

(The image above is from Pickled Image, and shows Billy with Sherlock Holmes, and Billy unaware of Jabberwocky behind him.)

Puppets for Sale!

Posted by hil

Puppets for sale Hand puppets for sale

My puppetry colleague Samantha Ferris has more than 20 cool puppets that she would like to sell – hand puppets, large rod puppets, and some flat puppets. They are perfectly suited to the professional puppeteer or anyone interested in experimenting with puppets to create a magical piece of theatre.

They were all made in Hungary by a professional puppetmaker, Zoltan Lenkefi. The puppets range in price from $50 – $300, and the price is negotiable if you are considering a bulk purchase. Samantha also has staging and blacks for sale. You can see photographs of all the puppets (click on the thumbnails to enlarge), and check out prices and contact details here.

Classic Sesame Street: Telephone Rock

Posted by hil

The irreverence and exhuberence in this classic Sesame Street video clip is such fun. I love it! (via Project Puppet)

Its no longer available :(