Or a couple of them…
Both are in a partial stage of construction – there’s always a tension when you start the rehearsal process between needing to have something ready to work with and wanting the design of the puppet to be responsive to the devising process. Devising with a puppet is always a conversation with an object, but if the design is fixed, the conversation becomes quite one-sided.
Another tension, one which we’re particularly interested in, is that between minimalism and recognition. As a company we’re fascinated by the idea of stripping away the body, both literally and metaphorically. How many jigsaw pieces can you remove and still recognise the picture? These are two of the most ‘complete’ bodies we are working with – the others don’t read as figures outside of a black box space. This period of R&D is very much about discovering what kind of puppets work for the story.
Of course there’s always something to be said for an expert outside eye. Green Ginger’s Chris Pirie took one look at one of our puppets and solved about a week’s work of problems in a couple of sentences. Thanks Chris! Rehearsals start tomorrow…