Showing @ Underbelly Topside, Edinburgh until Sunday 24 August @ 12.00
Joe is a small boy who lives in a quaint seaside town with his mum and older sister. He is also a small puppet made out of cardboard and clay and the protagonist of Feral. The audience is told the story of an affluent town that is struck by the economic crisis where unrest and violence unexpectedly ensues. It is a puppet show with big ideas that looks at big problems.
Feral is built on imagination, fun and most poignantly social realism. The innovation comes from the method that theatre company Tortoise in a Nutshell use to convey the harsh, brutal and honest narrative. On-stage is a large table and above sits a monitor. The performers construct the cardboard set on the tabletop and populate it with small, intricately illustrated cardboard characters. The protagonists and scenery are masterfully manipulated and filmed on miniature cameras which project the images to the monitor.
The performance feels fresh and original as we see the story constructed in front of our eyes. The poignancy comes when the town is destroyed and we see the view from Joe’s window. His miniature world is broken and this underlines the fact that Feral is a performance with heart, character and big ideas.