Amber Botteley

Unchained

Paper Doll Militia

 

 

Intrigue encapsulates you as you are welcomed with the sight of what seems to be a giant fabric jellyfish flattened across the stage… Perhaps confusion continues as a figure appears in a white boiler suit, sweeps something off its shoulder (a chip perhaps?) and exits. At which point, it seems Frankenstein’s monster has been trapped by the jellyfish and attempts to escape its clutches! The jellyfish doesn’t like this it seems and rises up, encasing the monster inside its tentacles (gasp)! A figure arrives seemingly as confused as the audience is at what has just arisen in front of them, however, she evidently likes jellyfish and starts munching away on it… (whatever floats your boat). Then. She spots the monster within. Curiosity encases her. She starts ripping the tentacles away to reveal, not a monster, but seemingly a twin of herself (in lieu of names, the former is twin 1 the latter, twin 2) – plot twist!

 

Within a mash of chains suspended from the remaining carcass of the jellyfish, the twins perform an aerial display, twisting and twirling around each other, showing incredible strength and skill. As the music becomes more jarring and serious, so does the performance. It is evident that this show was based around the aerial work as there didn’t seem to be much effort to integrate it into a storyline. This is not a bad thing necessarily as the performance could be seen to focus entirely on the symbolism of what could potentially be serious struggles with mental illnesses. It occurred to me to think of the aerial display as a schizophrenic struggle between these ‘twins’ to perhaps escape their tortured mind. That being said, there wasn’t enough development with these themes and the ‘characters’ due to the repetitious and predictable movements within the display.

 

The idea that one ‘side’ of the mind has won (or lost) this battle comes to fruition as the ‘twins’ fight over a white boiler suit (identical to the one at the beginning), symbolizing, in my interpretation, the institutionalization of mental health, while the other ‘side’ gets hidden away once again as it was before.

 

 

 

 

 

Tristissimo (CEC) by Amber Botteley

An interesting piece of physical theatre awaits you in Tristissimo.

A skillful duo of performers combine various physical techniques along with some spoken word, thought provoking sound effects and a hell of a lot of strength.

Each present their bodies in such distorted ways that it is difficult to see them as people, an effect profound however this distortion did nothing for the audience’s connection with the characters.

I am certain a great amount of work and effort has been put into this production, however, I could not help but be distracted with the seemingly unnecessary wigs and whether a better choice of attire would be suited for the female of the two – who seemed equally concerned with the length of her skirt.

The costumes are, of course, not the be all and end all of a performance, but I found them jarring while watching this and, to be honest, I didn’t get why there was a need for a seemingly never ending plait dragging across the stage… Maybe I have missed something here? Where was my golden braid to carry me through?

Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t expected to be handed everything on a plate, but a little morsel here and there would have sufficed.

After much thought, it occurred to me that this was a piece about a couple being torn apart, but sadly this is where my insight ended. I felt very ‘left in the dark’ with the concept. I wasn’t sure what was happening most of the time, and unfortunately that created somewhat of a barrier preventing me from enjoying it to the full.

That being said, it did make me feel something, perhaps the elusive male figure, or those mental images of war and conflict. I was forced to begin making up my own stories about these characters, occasionally aided by their components. ‘This may have been what they wanted you to do, though’, you say.

 

True, but if so, it may have needed to have been a little clearer for me. However talented this duo is – which they undoubtable are – I couldn’t quite grasp the idea of it all.

Amber Botteley on Autumn Portraits

Eric Bass’ wonderfully crafted puppets take on unique human personas and lives of their own as you steadily fall in love with each and every one of them… yes, yes, even the annoyingly loveable meh, meh Music Man! Five beautiful tales told through an exquisite understanding of movement and storytelling bring each and every world to life capturing the audiences hearts, and perhaps gradually bring our beloved puppet master to life in our eyes as he so lovingly does to his muses.

 

It was wonderful to appreciate the care and love that has been laboured into this routine (from crafting the puppets to mastering the intricacies of this production) and to see the backstage preparations which can so often and easily be forgotten. To have everything which was to be used for the piece to be in front of your eyes, yet it needed our beloved puppet master to bring it to life. And bring it to life he did.

Each of the ‘vignettes’ has its own puppet master, or at least the puppet is its own puppet master controlled by our puppet master… if you see what I mean…

A Medieval King has a trick played upon him by his Giant Jester, unable to defeat it, he sighs in acceptance as his Jester proves his superiority by effortlessly releasing his majesty from the clutches of the trick.

We move to our meh, Music Man, with a tale of two lovers which is ‘very sad and he insists he didn’t write it’ while he performs to his puppet masters – us.

Next to our Spirit Lady, herself a mistress of stories as she becomes her puppet master (puppet mistress…?), she tells us of a sad tale of a disbelieving and suspicious husband trying to protect his family to tragic ends.

With intrigue we are confronted with a Monk, trying to summon a spirit, only for him to command it from himself. This ‘spirit’ becomes his puppeteer with tragic consequences – there seems to be a theme emerging…?

We come to a very sleepy Shoemaker who is awoken by what he assumes to be the Angel of Death. He tries to convince the Angel to let him finish “ze boots for little Rachael” while tugging on the audience’s heart strings and being one of the most adorable yet tragic characters.

And back we are once more to our Music Man who becomes our orchestra conductor (and a puppeteer of his new found, very surprised musical volunteers).

The puppet master, perhaps becomes a puppet? Do we, the audience become the puppets? Or are we the puppeteers? Whatever way round this may be, you will go home pulling at your strings for more.

This uniquely crafted piece has a few clumsy moments – and perhaps putting the fear of god into your audience whilst scanning for musically gifted (or not as the case may be) volunteers isn’t necessarily the ideal – but taking charge of all those puppets on your own cannot be an easy task! Especially when that pesky Music Man must be causing havoc with the others…