32 Rue Vandenbranden is part of the London International Mime Festival and is a UK Premiere. The production was created by the Belgium company, Peeping Tom, in 2009 and has already received several awards.
32 Rue Vandenbranden is part of the London International Mime Festival and is a UK Premiere. The production was created by the Belgium company, Peeping Tom, in 2009 and has already received several awards.
Using a very particular Japanese art of painted screens and puppetry, American puppeteer Basil Twist presents an hour-long piece – Dogugaeshi, as part of the London International Mime Festival. Blending music and art on top of puppet work, Twist effectively makes this style his own, with a seemingly endless amount of hand-painted screens opening and closing, and some modern music thrown in (who knew Ethel Merman’s classic “No Business Like Show Business” had a place within a Japanese puppetry piece?).
Noodles may well be the wackiest show I have seen in London for a very long time. NoFit State Circus, a UK company, yet presenting only foreign performers, created this contemporary circus piece around noodles and five bizarre characters obsessed with it. These strings that look like noodles are everywhere on stage, almost as if one is entering Noodle land.
Unless you practice medicine, watch informative programmes on the processes and networks of the human anatomy or have an impressive knowledge of the Oxford Dictionary, I doubt that many of us sit back and think of the natural and astonishing processes that the human body goes through, let alone labelling each individual system. The production, Plexus, draws from its meaning: a network of nerves and vessels in the body and an intricate network or web like formation, stopping the audience in their tracks with this forward thinking piece of genius.
In Theatre Ad Infinitum’s production Light they explore the increasingly discussed and frightening idea of utter society control and surveillance. Inspired by Edward Snowden’s revelations that secret services violate our privacy for the greater good, George Mann felt urgent to create this play where control is also initially exerted to increase security with the dream of making the world a better place.
As part of the London International Mime Festival, Thomas Monckton performs his clown and circus solo piece The Pianist. Every show in this annual festival tends to provide fresh perspectives of what theatre can be and for that same reason is worth taking a look to at least one of the many interesting things being created across the world.
It is somewhere between the star performer being dropped off by a big tattooed bloke in a cloak and her wallowing in a pile of cardboard boxes to ‘80s synths, that the audience wonders whether they’ve accidentally walked into the International space festival, rather than the International Mime Festival.
Imagine falling in front of a crowd of people… all eyes on you as you stumble, topple, drop to the ground… murmurs turn into comments that may potentially turn into laughter… I’m sure we’ve all had an embarrassing tripping moment. We’re taught to walk and keep our balance from a very young age, however falling is apart of that process. Falling as we age is viewed upon as vulnerability, a lack of support or direction.
Named after the famed nautical creature renowned for wreaking havoc and drowning many a ship brave enough to cross its path, you’d be mistaken for thinking that the production of Kraken would follow suit, elaborating on the element of fear most associated with the monster. However, the production is anything but scary as Trygve Wakenshaw playfully navigates a fun, animated and comical piece of theatre.
Founded in 2012 by performers Olivia Quayle and Jan Patzke, ‘Joli Vyann’ have gone from strength to strength. Their fusion of circus skills, dance and theatre have seen the company win the admiration of audiences, and they continue to push the boundaries with their imaginative works. Ahead of their performance of Stateless at next year’s International Mime Festival, Theatrefullstop were able to speak to the founders about collaborating with choreographer Florence Caillon, their inspirations for the piece and who they are looking forward to watching at the festival!