Since 1994 there has been a biennial ?visions? festival, promoted by the University of Brighton, writes Linda Lewis.
The festival programmes high quality, contemporary animated theatre from across the world, including Peru, Canada, Spain, France, Italy, Germany as well the UK. This year, we are showcasing work from Australia, India and Europe, which has never been seen in this country before. International talent spotting is costly and time-consuming, so it is essential to expose UK promoters, practitioners and audiences to the most interesting work and to raise their ambitions and expectations.
Visions has been influential in achieving a much higher profile for contemporary animated theatre in the UK. We have supported the work of excellent UK companies like Green Ginger, Improbable and Faulty Optic; and highly regarded companies such as Robert le Page, Complicite and shows like ?The Lion King?, and ?Shockheaded Peter? use puppetry as an integral part of their work. However, there are few new companies in the UK producing strong and polished work in this field, so for the first time this year, visions will run a launch-pad event to encourage emerging companies to show their work in the context of a festival attracting international promoters and performers.
A wealth of exciting companies that promoters here have never heard of appeared at the Magdeburg festival in Germany. Many come from the former East Germany where puppetry has developed in terms of skill and new technologies. Four of these companies are coming to visions: Theatre Meininger?s The Steadfast Tin Soldier, an amazing multimedia shadow theatre show, opening with a big surprise for the audience; Tram Theater, who use the strong symbolic power of video projections with puppets to tell their story La Plume D?Ange; Theater Tubingen (Germany) and Teatron Theatre Company (Israel), with Children of the Beast, a co-production which is a serious and disturbing piece of adult theatre; and Theatre Weidspeicher Puppentheater, with an adaptation of The Ugly Duckling told for very young audiences through a mixture of puppetry and object manipulation.
Charleville Meziers is the home of the main European College for puppeteers. The whole town embraces its festival with displays in every shop window turning bread and cakes into puppets and models and sewing machines into animated displays. This festival clearly demonstrates the possibilities of street theatre puppetry ? an art form well established in France ? and there?s lots of street theatre at visions this year, including Les Locataires performing their show from the back of their car!
For the first time this year visions is bringing work from India where work is less developed than in Europe, and traditional giant animal puppets from Orissa will be in Brighton this year. Much of the work is traditional, but artists such as Dadi Pudumjee from Delhi are keen to present a contemporary face of India. This is the first time some of the artists will have left India and it will be interesting to see how their visit will influence future work. The trade-off for both parties is a richness of experience that could never be achieved without live performance and exchange.
Linda Lewis is Director of Visions Festival t: 01273 643194 e: visions.fest@brighton.ac.uk
Visions runs from October 24 to November 2, with a showcase weekend on October 26-28.As part of the festival, the University of Brighton is promoting Re:visions, a seminar focusing on how new technologies can be embraced in creative practice and live performance.