Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Feral, in a Nutshell

Tonight I saw the small Edinburgh-based theatre company, Tortoise in a Nutshell, at a great new venue, La Teatreria, in a leafy Roma backstreet. It's small but in a beautifully designed building with restaurant, cafe, bar and two theatre spaces, run by the charming Shoshana Polanco.
Anyway, TiaN's piece, for some unexplained reason called Feral, is about a seaside town which starts off friendly & community-spirited and ends up, thanks to the opening of a crass, commercial arcade, mired in riots and despair. 
The story isn't the thing though (and to be honest, is a bit weak). It's the way the story is told, through rudimentary puppetry, hand-held mini-cameras, live soundscapes and a very inventive set-design. There are five people on stage, but none of them act. Three of them manipulate the puppets, set and cameras, and two control the sound and light. (There's also a sixth guy, the Tour Manager, in case you were counting people in the photo). See trailer. A really, ambitious little show.

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