Metropia
The Last Miner
The Manipulate Visual Theatre Festival got underway at the Traverse on Monday with a double bill of created worlds which, although both set below the surface of the earth, couldn’t have been more different from one another.
If you were to sum up Metropia, Tarik Saleh’s distopian animation in one sentence it would probably be: “Hitchcockian everyman in Orwellian nightmare; a tale of evil corporations, mind control and femme fatales.”
The bleak world of the near future was brilliantly drawn and the numerous little touches Saleh put in to highlight corporate control and the bleary eyed acquiescence of the populace were threaded subtly throughout making this a dark visual treat, however its looks were never matched by either pace or plot.
The story took too long to build but moved swiftly enough when it finally got going and was an entertaining ride if not quite as intelligent or insightful as it believed itself to be, however its unique distorted style and consistent tone of confusion still made it well worth a watch.
The underground world of The Last Miner was more intimate, perhaps even claustrophobic with this puppet piece by Scottish company Tortoise in a Nutshell taking place, as the name suggests, in a disused mine.
This was a show full of the sort of subtle inventiveness that would make Oliver Postgate proud. Lovingly handmade props, lighting and sound effects coming from the mouths of the puppeteers added to the charm of what was already a charming piece.
A tale of one man’s isolation with the miner locked away physically and emotionally, haunted by memories and loss spending his days caring for his troublesome canary and maintaining his self created world from the dust and dirt. This wasn’t a tale of spectacle or shock but a tender piece of skillful storytelling which created a warm glow to take into the cold night.
Manipulate Visual Theatre Festival @ Traverse Theatre until Sat 5th Feb