Mwathirika

threeweeks.co.uk

My last trip to the Fringe in 2011 took me to an incense-infused-caravan, with pillows as seating, to a performance by The River People with some of the most captivating puppetry I'd ever seen. I'd never really cared for shows about puppets but their performance of Little Matter opened my eyes to just how magical it can be. The storytelling really spoke to me and it remains one of the greatest theatre productions I think I've seen.

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Little Matter's magic then took me to the Little Angel Theatre in East London where I found puppetry tackling stories of the holocaust (Buttons) and of a charming relationship between man, woman and fish, accompanied by the diagnosis and subsequent journey of discovery brought by Motor-neurone disease (Cell) - also at this year's fringe.

This year, I was back in Edinburgh again and I quickly sought out my next magical puppetry experience - I found it at C Nova.

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'Mwathirika', (meaning 'victim') was marketed as an Indonesian puppet show following two village families during the Indonesian genocide, in association with the British Council. It was the first time I'd seen child puppets and they got the physicality just right. Immediately some kind of maternal instinct kicked in as I watched the relationship between two young brothers fluctuate between self-pitying tantrums and complete idolisation in mere moments. With no dialogue to drive the story, all eyes were drawn to navigating our own individual journeys through the performance and these boys were central to it. You can't help but be charmed by the childish laughter and playful skipping of main character 

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We watch as a nation is ripped apart and friends are isolated by an unjust regime. Children lose a father. A father shows his love for his daughter. Soldiers play the puppeteers of a nation as they themselves are puppets to a regime. A girl tries to help a friend and a boy is left alone.

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The Indonesian theatre company had mastered puppetry, with vocalisations of excitement and child's play spot on, as they even operated puppets with their toes.! I was transported. I was there with them. My heart wrenched for them. During the show the boys' father is arrested under the regime and they are left alone. At this point the pain that they feel is thrust into the hearts and minds of the captured audience. As they shiver, starve and cry, lose all hope - every ounce of humanity in you is reaching forward as if to scoop them up. It continues scene after scene, aided by projections of an endless tally chart and the execution of less animated movement, prolonging the feeling of an eternity of suffering. 

theaustralian.com.au

As the youngest child is left alone, the young girl from next door makes touching attempts to cheer him up as she wheels over in her wheelchair and gives him her music box. This was another first for me, seeing a puppet in a wheelchair and not thinking twice about it because it was choreographed so superbly. There were moments of audience participation, of light and dark and of a fairytale filled with hardship, loss, love and and friendship and it was captivating to watch the wooden puppets come alive as children. 

The performance almost had a heartbeat of it's own, you could tell the puppeteers were invested in their story and why not. I feel drawn to learn about Indonesian culture in a way I haven't been since the magnificent documentary 'The Missing Picture'.

I think you can tell, I was suitably impressed and for one evening of an unbelievably busy week, whilst my friends were off drinking, I found myself transported deep into the beautiful heart of an injured Indonesia and found triumph in facing it head on. I even got to get acquainted with one of teh characters!

The Fringe did it again, it holds the gold medal for puppetry for 2015 and I can't wait to see what it has in store for me next year! 

Follow Papermoon Puppet Theatre's work here: http://www.papermoonpuppet.com/