Review - The Paper Cinema's The Odyssey - My Edinburgh Fringe Choice

By -


Next week the Edinburgh Fringe kicks off with thousands of performers, established and new, giving it their all on one of many stages all over the city. There will be so much to see at Europe’s largest cultural festival so here’s a little tip from me - Whatever you do at the Fringe, go and see The Paper Cinema!



Founded in 2004,The Paper Cinema creates live animation with elaborate ink and pen drawn paper puppets accompanied by live music and special effects. Earlier this week I rocked up to the Battersea Arts Centre to check out The Paper Cinema’s production of Homer’s ‘The Odyssey’.



Projected onto a screen, there are individual puppets and settings for every single scene. The characters and their surroundings become multidimensional through the painstaking manoeuvres of the puppeteers. Scenes, such as Odysseus sailing away while Penelope watches in the foreground or Odysseus and his crew running from the Cyclops with the latter’s gigantic feet crashing around them and trees speeding past, are made all the more real. Visual effects added to the physical and emotional depth of the story  - Penelope staring into the distance while images depicting her plight - Odysseus away at sea, her suitors (depicted by wolves) causing havoc at her home - circle around the middle of her forehead.    



There were playful pop culture references and plenty of humour throughout the story telling. In search for his father, Telemachus travels far and wide on a motorcycle with a girl at the back while Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper in Easy Rider roar past.



The live music was wonderfully atmospheric, it can be enjoyed on its own and has touches of eclecticism. One moment you’re listening to a piece akin to Prokofiev’s ‘Peter and the Wolf’ and the next you’re listening to Air’s finest.



The Paper Cinema’s work is breathtaking to say the least. You marvel at the precision and timing throughout the whole show. The puppeteers and musicians are visible throughout the whole performance which makes the process even more compelling to watch. The story telling itself is executed with warmth, sensitivity and pure charm. I found myself drawn to and feeling for the paper and cardboard characters on the screen. This is a show that will appeal greatly to both grown up and family audiences.






The Paper Cinema’s The Odyssey - Summerhall, Edinburgh. 17th - 25th August.

For tickets visit edfringe.com/whats-on/theatre/paper-cinema-s-odyssey


Check out The Paper Cinema here! -  thepapercinema.com





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Category Is...POSE!

By -
Image
POSE is an award-winning U.S TV show with a third season in the pipeline. Yet the series barely gets a mention in workplaces and dinner parties (is the silence just in the UK?). It's not enough that my partner and a few queer friends and acquaintances have watched POSE. This is a must for everybody to learn about an often ignored part of LGBTQ+ history and culture that's not whitewashed. It's also packed with great performances. So I'm going to keep promoting the hell out of POSE.  Created by Ryan Murphy, POSE is a drama centred around the New York ballroom culture in the 1980s and early 90s. Marginalised black, latin, gay and trans competitors dance and walk for trophies in multiple categories. This is an underground scene that influenced Madonna (which season 2 touches on) and is frequently referenced in Rupaul's Drag Race.  The pilot bursts open with a thrilling break-in. Ran by the glamorous and domineering Elektra (Dominique Jackson), the House of Abundance wil
Read more

Inspiring Movies: What A Way To Go!

By -
Image
Bold and elaborate costume design exhilarates me. When I’m low on energy, I google images of Bob Mackie creations instead of buying chocolate as a little pick-me-up. What A Way To Go!, a star-studded dark comedy from 1964, is the visual equivalent to a freakshake-induced sugar rush. Shirley MacLaine stars as small-town girl Louisa May Foster who desires a simple life. But Louisa ends up marrying men - played by Dick Van Dyke, Paul Newman, Robert Mitchum and Gene Kelly - who become incredibly wealthy overnight. The success, greed and vanity of the husbands kills them in outlandish ways leaving Louisa re-widowed, richer and sadder. With costumes designed by the legendary Edith Head, MacLaine’s character is frequently reinvented as she moves from one doomed spouse to another. Before money enters Louisa’s world, she is as sweet as apple pie in frills and red polka dots. With each husband comes a different lifestyle as well as a more sophisticated image. Living in bohemian Paris, with Paul
Read more

Living Deliciously: Robert Eggers' The VVitch

By -
One of the small blessings of lockdown, has been the opportunity to watch even more films than usual. Supernatural horror has become more prominent in my viewing choices - there had always been affinity with the genre's outsiders but this time it is also a brief escape from reality. The VVitch, which premiered at the 2015 Sundance festival, had been on my list for a while.  The VVitch follows a family of 17th century English settlers who, banished from their New England colony over a religious dispute, set up a new home in an isolated clearing next to a dense forest. Tragedy begins when the baby vanishes while the adolescent daughter Thomasin (Anna Taylor-Joy) plays peek-a-boo with him. Somewhere in the forest, an elderly woman rubs herself with an ointment of bodily remains.  Secrets and paranoia suffocate the family. Thomasin increasingly receives accusations from both parents and siblings, over thefts and unholy activity, as unexplained misfortune strikes again - her verge of ad
Read more