Jaberwocky
Jaberwocky - An Intricate Interrogation of the Carol Classic
It's a Yam! Productions have never ceased to amaze me with their creativity and their sheer inertia to recreate exciting theatre using what are generally considered outmoded techniques. Their background in recreating mid-20th century radio plays lent to not only humorous in their writing, but skillful choreography and rendering. And taking another long forgotten narrative technique - the shadow puppet - their most recent journey Jaberwocky transformed the Guild Stage, once again, not into a foreign space for exploring a story, but, perhaps more profoundly, into an inner space of nostalgia, decorated with our own memory of the classic 'nonsense' poem.
There's something delightfully tantalising and mutable about a shadow. It is the only thing Peter Pan cannot control, poets have mused over its origins and purpose, and there are whole jazz standards about 'my shadow and me'. So how is it that we seem to have let the art of shadow puppetry go? From simple hand gestures to make dogs and bunny rabbits through to the more delicate and beautifully thought out productions of yore, are generations beginning to forget what a shadow can evoke? It seems John Leung's seamless marriage of two concepts, the interrogation and rereading of a much loved childhood poem with the layer of a nostalgic shadow puppet world was a match made in heaven.
To speak first to the new version of the story, retelling from the woodland's point of view was done skillfully and reverently. A new personality was brought to the poem, and perhaps its full potential was realised - nonsense language doesn't necessarily mean no meaning. Listening to the half hatched English and the story of the animal kingdom's struggle for ultimate power and control and eventual demise, fleshed out what had been a simple word play poem into a story transcending time and place, moreover something quite pertinent in the face of issues such as global warming and general disregard for our planet. However, done with such a delicate hand that it didn't feel like we were being bludgeoned over the head with the 'moral of the story' and with a clear understanding of the original text to continue a beautiful flavour of Carol's voice throughout the piece. At times, too many of the original nonsense words were repeated, instead of relying on Leung's ability to create his own nonsense words, which occasionally gave the feel that we were not as engrossed in the fantasy as we might be, but none the less, the language remained beautifully wrought.
The actors committed to the text easily, performing not only with their vocal chords but with as much emotion as the puppets conveyed. Their focus not only on the script, but on the puppets themselves gave a lovely continuity and understanding of how the show was unfolding constantly. Sadly, a continual fade of lights up and down on these artists drew attention away from the puppets at times where it would have been preferable to remain lost in the narrative. The musicians also played an integral role for setting the atmosphere and feel of the piece, breathing warmth into a nostalgia created through the poetry and shadow play.
The puppets themselves were divine. Beautifully designed, carved and finally puppeteered. The puppeteers clearly had a fine tuned radar on subtleties of movement and emotion which brought delightful touches of humor and realism to the narrative. At times, I felt the live sound effects detracted from the simplicity of the gestures and at times had a tendency to ham up moments which would have been quite elegant without. A certain restraint in this manner would have left a much more interesting disjunction of words - a still man made thing, trying to give life to the animals articulated in the show - with the shadows - a reflection of what was. Really, this was such a minor complaint however, the way the story unfolded brought an almost spiritual effect into play - akin to stories of the dreaming or creation myths, you could almost see these images being drawn on walls in a folklore.
All in all, an incredibly admirable and thrilling piece. Perhaps if student theatre had access to more money, it would be quite incredible to see if this could be moved into a larger scale project. But as it stands, one of the more interesting works I've seen this year. After all, who doesn't like tripping down the paths of the past and pushing our childhood preconceptions that little bit further?
It's a Yam! Productions have never ceased to amaze me with their creativity and their sheer inertia to recreate exciting theatre using what are generally considered outmoded techniques. Their background in recreating mid-20th century radio plays lent to not only humorous in their writing, but skillful choreography and rendering. And taking another long forgotten narrative technique - the shadow puppet - their most recent journey Jaberwocky transformed the Guild Stage, once again, not into a foreign space for exploring a story, but, perhaps more profoundly, into an inner space of nostalgia, decorated with our own memory of the classic 'nonsense' poem.
There's something delightfully tantalising and mutable about a shadow. It is the only thing Peter Pan cannot control, poets have mused over its origins and purpose, and there are whole jazz standards about 'my shadow and me'. So how is it that we seem to have let the art of shadow puppetry go? From simple hand gestures to make dogs and bunny rabbits through to the more delicate and beautifully thought out productions of yore, are generations beginning to forget what a shadow can evoke? It seems John Leung's seamless marriage of two concepts, the interrogation and rereading of a much loved childhood poem with the layer of a nostalgic shadow puppet world was a match made in heaven.
To speak first to the new version of the story, retelling from the woodland's point of view was done skillfully and reverently. A new personality was brought to the poem, and perhaps its full potential was realised - nonsense language doesn't necessarily mean no meaning. Listening to the half hatched English and the story of the animal kingdom's struggle for ultimate power and control and eventual demise, fleshed out what had been a simple word play poem into a story transcending time and place, moreover something quite pertinent in the face of issues such as global warming and general disregard for our planet. However, done with such a delicate hand that it didn't feel like we were being bludgeoned over the head with the 'moral of the story' and with a clear understanding of the original text to continue a beautiful flavour of Carol's voice throughout the piece. At times, too many of the original nonsense words were repeated, instead of relying on Leung's ability to create his own nonsense words, which occasionally gave the feel that we were not as engrossed in the fantasy as we might be, but none the less, the language remained beautifully wrought.
The actors committed to the text easily, performing not only with their vocal chords but with as much emotion as the puppets conveyed. Their focus not only on the script, but on the puppets themselves gave a lovely continuity and understanding of how the show was unfolding constantly. Sadly, a continual fade of lights up and down on these artists drew attention away from the puppets at times where it would have been preferable to remain lost in the narrative. The musicians also played an integral role for setting the atmosphere and feel of the piece, breathing warmth into a nostalgia created through the poetry and shadow play.
The puppets themselves were divine. Beautifully designed, carved and finally puppeteered. The puppeteers clearly had a fine tuned radar on subtleties of movement and emotion which brought delightful touches of humor and realism to the narrative. At times, I felt the live sound effects detracted from the simplicity of the gestures and at times had a tendency to ham up moments which would have been quite elegant without. A certain restraint in this manner would have left a much more interesting disjunction of words - a still man made thing, trying to give life to the animals articulated in the show - with the shadows - a reflection of what was. Really, this was such a minor complaint however, the way the story unfolded brought an almost spiritual effect into play - akin to stories of the dreaming or creation myths, you could almost see these images being drawn on walls in a folklore.
All in all, an incredibly admirable and thrilling piece. Perhaps if student theatre had access to more money, it would be quite incredible to see if this could be moved into a larger scale project. But as it stands, one of the more interesting works I've seen this year. After all, who doesn't like tripping down the paths of the past and pushing our childhood preconceptions that little bit further?