Manipulate festival announces its most expansive visual feast yet for 2020
The festival of visual theatre, puppetry and animated film reveals a host of international offerings across nine days
Puppet Animation Scotland has officially revealed the line-up for manipulate festival's latest edition, which will see a wealth of visual offerings descend upon Edinburgh from Fri 31 January to Sat 8 February. With 75 films, productions, workshops and events scheduled to be staged at the Studio and Summerhall over the nine-day period, their 2020 programme is manipulate's biggest to date, both in terms of number of events, as well as in its global scope. Artists from ten countries are set to bring work to the capital – ranging from Canada and Australia to Slovenia and Germany – as well as 41 artists and companies from Scotland alone.
The festival opens with two such Scottish works, featuring a performance of Jordan & Skinner's A Brief History of the Fragile Male Ego and a special edition of Cirqulation: Other Worlds by circus-cabaret night Delighters. There will also be a presentation from 2020's edition of Rough Mix, which was hosted by Puppet Animation Scotland and Canada's Festival de Casteliers, and saw five experienced artists work with two early career artists and a six-person ensemble to develop new work.
Highlights from the programme taking place at Summerhall include a double-bill from leading French theatre company Collectif AÏE AÏE AÏE, who will be bringing their table-top puppet duet Ma Biche et Mon Lapin and farcical treasure hunt Ersatz; the vignette series Sketches by Scottish artist Katie Armstrong, which will first be performed at pop-up locations across the city centre; Nunah Theatre's Remember Me?, which meditates on the fickle nature of memory; and the premiere of leading Scottish ensemble Oceanallover's new promenade piece, Transfigured.
Another world-first sees Scottish company Two Destination Language stage their new technology-driven show Fault Lines, which explores the constrictive identities foisted upon women today. Scotland-based company, Visible Fictions, will be presenting their show Up, which depicts the unlikely probability – and then the reality – of dying in a plane crash.
Returning to the festival for the third year will be a strand of cinema shorts that feature highly-visual elements. These will include highlights from Edinburgh Short Film Festival, as well as a screening of 'A Taste of Quebec' from Festival Stop Motian Montréal, and Emma Calder's 'Pearly Oyster Productions: A Retrospective'.
Meanwhile, the Studio will be housing Samolœt's deep dive into the moods and themes at play in Anton Chekhov's body of work in After Chekhov; Improbable Dolls' Mina, which deconstructs the heinous practice of conversion therapy, still unfortunately practiced around the world; and the return of Paper Doll Militia with their show A Wire Apart, exploring modern digital communication and technology in a spectacular fusion of circus and theatre. Edinburgh's own Tortoise in a Nutshell will also be celebrating its tenth anniversary with Ragnarok, a co-production with Norway's Figurteateret i Nordland, which explores Nordic mythology, the climate crisis and the end of the world.
In addition to works of visual theatre and animation, the festival will also be hosting workshops to help practitioners develop work, including Nataly Lebouleux from Improbable Dolls and Kieran Sheehan's workshop 'Metamorphosis: The Animated Body', which encourages participants to ruminate upon the connection between artist and the animated image; an exploration of the darker underbelly of contemporary puppetry in 'Nasty Puppets', led by Gavin Glover; and Tashi Gore's masterclass in critical responses to emerging work.
A new facet to the manipulate programme this year is a free, informal café-cabaret that takes place every night in Summerhall, hosted by the likes of some of Scotland's leading theatremakers. Fridays will also see late-night live music sessions, presented in collaboration with in-house music programmers Nothing Ever Happens Here.
Of the 2020 programme, Simon Hart, the Director of Puppet Animation Scotland, said: 'We're pleased to be working with venue partners Summerhall and The Studio in Edinburgh, alongside the Norwich Puppet Theatre, to present manipulate 2020. We value greatly and celebrate the role the Traverse Theatre has played in manipulate's on-going success and sustainability, especially in the early years of our festival's evolution. The growth of Scottish companies presenting world-class work at the festival has really made programming our 13th festival incredibly special for the whole team, and we look forward to another exciting, stimulating and thought-provoking celebration of the very best of Scottish and international visual theatre, puppetry and animated film.'
manipulate festival, various venues: Edinburgh, Fri 31 Jan–Sat 8 Feb, manipulatefestival.org