INTERVIEW: Ice puppetry show, based on tale of Oedipus, comes to NYC
Photo: Anywhere, conceived and co-directed by Elise Vigneron, will play HERE in New York City. Photo courtesy of Vincent Beaume / Provided by Everyman Agency with permission.
New York theatergoers are an adventurous bunch. They try out musicals, plays, experimental shows, avant-garde pieces, dance routines, comedy bits and circus performances. A new one for many of these well-versed audiences members is ice puppetry, and now they have a chance to check it off their must-see lists.
Anywhere, an ice puppetry show imported from Le Théâtre de l’Entrouvert, will play HERE March 11-15. The production was conceived by Elise Vigneron, who also took care of scenic design and co-directed with Hélène Barreau.
The play is based off the novel Oedipus on the Road by Henry Bauchau. In this adaptation, Oedipus leaves his throne and heads out on a journey with his daughter, Antigone, according to press notes. The true magic of this performance piece is that Oedipus is represented as an ice puppet, which slowly melts throughout the play, mirroring Oedipus’ own slipping away.
“Anywhere traces with gentleness and strength a poetic journey, in black and white, of fire and ice, which speaks to us about our bodies, our fragilities, our wanderings in the infinite circle of renewal,” according to press notes.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Vigneron, who founded Le Théâtre de l’Entrouvert in 2009. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
What inspired you to create this work based on the life of Oedipus?
After my initial research into ice, which I had started in the previous show Impermanence, I decided to build a puppet made of ice.
My inspiration for Anywhere comes from the story of Oedipus on the Road, written by Henry Bauchau. Bauchau added this chapter to the story of Oedipus, which was first created by Sophocles in his Oedipus King and Oedipus in Colonus. Oedipus, a plaything of the gods, who killed his father and married his mother, leaves Thebes blind and crushed by the weight of his transgression. Accompanied by his daughter, Antigone, he sets out on a long voyage which takes him to Colonus, from where he disappears … into a state of clairvoyance.
Through his use of the mythical, Henry Bauchau offers a different reading of the story of Oedipus. He leads us into the depths of the unconscious where disorder plays with the workings of the world and where the invisible brings about the metamorphosis and transformation of the individual.
The principal theme is about the interior transformation of Oedipus, which is influenced by the material transformation of the iced puppet.
This visual poem invites the audience to experience the different states of the element water [and] the interior metamorphosis of a mythical character: Oedipus, puppet of ice (solid state) slowly transforms into water (liquid state) and then disappears into mist (gaseous state).
Could you describe the puppetry used in the piece? Is it really made of ice?
Indeed, Oedipus is represented by a puppet made entirely of ice. Each evening, Hélène Barreau, who designed this puppet and who manipulates it in the show, builds a new ice puppet, which slowly melts during the show. And each puppet has a different face because the ice never reacts the same way — it’s always a new birth.
Technically, small structures are put in the body that allow us to place the hooks to attach the wires because it is a string puppet which is manipulated from a distance by very long wires. It is a system that we invented because it was impossible to handle this puppet with normal control: the puppet was too heavy and constantly sliding. These constraints have allowed us to develop a new system that makes the puppet very autonomous because we do not see the puppet’s manipulator.
What do you hope this story teaches the audience members about life and love?
With this show, I invite spectators to live an intimate and collective experience. They enter into empathy with this character of ice, which is metamorphosed, and with all the other elements of the scenography, which are in ceaseless transformation. Thus, they experience a cyclical time where life and death, cold and heat, darkness and light are always connected.
The relationship between Oedipus — a fragile being of ice — and Antigone (a being of flesh that protects him) is very touching. Sometimes their bodies move together, sometimes they split. We don’t really know if they [are] the same shape or if they are two different beings. With her unconditional love, Antigone helps him through the ordeal. As at any end of life, the roles are reversed, and it is Antigone, the girl, who takes care of her father.
Finally, at the end of their travels, having crossed foggy landscapes, Antigone lets Oedipus disappear on ‘the sunlit path, where the deepening lines spread out towards infinity and where he soon becomes no more than a tiny dot which slowly fades away.’
What inspired you to call the piece Anywhere?
The novel begins with a dialogue between Oedipus and Antigone where Oedipus announces to his daughter that he is going to leave. ‘To go where?’ she asks. He answers, ‘Nowhere, anywhere, on the road.’ Throughout the novel, this expression comes up regularly. By going ‘anywhere,’ by getting lost, Oedipus is going to find himself.
In addition, I like this title because it is universal; and since its creation, I dreamed that this show could travel and go anywhere like Oedipus. This title brought us luck, and I am delighted to perform it in New York.
teaser ANYWHERE from Théâtre de l'Entrouvert on Vimeo.
When did you first fall in love with puppetry?
My first encounter with puppets was the show Dédale by Philippe Genty. I saw it when I was a teenager, and I was fascinated by this visual and magical world which was unfolding. It was nothing like what you normally see at the theater. I immediately perceived this art as a visual language that speaks to the sensitive, to the unconscious.
Is this an exciting time to be a puppet artist? Is the puppetry scene very strong right now?
Today, puppetry opens up the field of experimentation — new forms are emerging at the crossroads of disciplines. Puppeteers have great freedom of expression: they can work with body, text, music and even science. For several years now, the puppetry arts have not been solely linked to young audiences.
Today, many of us are cultivating the animation of matter, developing a visual dramaturgy that moves away from narration to offer contemporary forms. This emulation is very dynamic — we are experimenting with new territories and also new relationships between the audience and these creations by proposing immersive experiences.
For me, the art of puppetry is connected with our current world, prone to disasters and in deep mutation. The puppets, the materials, the ephemeral scenographies, the blurred images, the elliptical dramaturgies translate this feeling of disorder and flow. They help us to rethink our current world by putting it in a cyclical time.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Anywhere, conceived and co-directed by Elise Vigneron, plays March 11-15 at HERE in New York City. Click here for more information and tickets.
