The Parachute is a light curtain puppet presentation (using light to highlight small areas of a performance area, allowing the puppet to be seen while the manipulators remain invisible) with white-tipped wands and ping pong balls. Despite the fact that we know what we are seeing are fluorescent balls and patterns of movement, our brains perceive human figures. It is truly remarkable, how such simple props can manipulate our perception, capture it and in the process tell us the story of life from birth to death.
Watch the Ball is a short piece showcasing puppetry. Mottram demonstrates how with a stick figure with a wooden head with detachable faces he can tell us a story. Never has our frustration with an instruction book been told with such minimalistic means.
Sebastian Castagna’s music pieces accompany both pieces with perfect synchrony and the overall performance is as masterful as it is entertaining.
For thirty years Stephen Mottram has been touring the globe with marionette shows for adult audiences. Best known of these are In Suspension, The Seas of Organillo, and The Seed Carriers. He also worked on films like The Little Shop of Horrors and Strings. Trained in London and Budapest as a mime, he has a deep interest in communication through movement and spends a lot of time nowadays teaching.
