pickled image quotes
The result is both magical and mystifying, as are dreams and memories. It is a shock to realise, at the end, that there were only two ‘human’ performers, such precision and nimbleness is impressive.
Houdini’s Suitcase moves the boundaries of what most theatrical productions are like.
7/9/07 Jane Sunderland Virtual Lancaster Net
Durch solche ergreifenden Szenen haben Pickled Image den Schlüssel zum Herzen des Zuschauer immer dabei.
Nele Schüller – FTF 1.10.07
HOUDINIS SUITCASE faz aparecer um dos momentos mais poéticos desta edicão do festival.
Folha de Londrina 20.06.07
HOUDINI’S SUITCASE est un spectacle d’une jeune compagnie anglaise, Pickled Image, déjà appréciée lors du Festival Mondial des Théâtres de Marionnette 2006 dans les rues de Charleville avec un Peep show so british comme disent les français !
Transfuge de la compagnie Green Ginger, Dik Downey a un incontestable talent de comédien et de marionnettiste. Un rien nostalgique d’une époque disparue, il entraîne le spectateur dans les souvenirs d’un vieil illusionniste au milieu de ses malles de voyages. Tant de rencontres, d’amours oubliés et de grands moments de spectacles s’y cachent encore… Marionnettes et objets sont ici très à l’aise pour permettre ces évocations tendres et drôles à la fois. La manipulatrice, qui est aussi la réalisatrice des marionnettes, donne vie avec beaucoup d’habileté.
Doit-on regretter un propos qui peut à première vue paraître ténu ? Certainement non car l’essentiel de ce spectacle est à chercher dans la sensibilité qui s’en dégage. La mémoire est fragile et insistante : elle résonne comme une petite musique en chaque spectateur, se passant des mots pour mieux nous surprendre là où on ne l’attend pas…
Lucile Bodson, Directrice Institut International de la Marionnette
In their new show, Pickled Image draws on the ancient art of puppetry, but also adds new dimensions via technology. The result is a visual and dramatic treat. Not to be missed.
Bríd Conneely, BC Copenhagen
Houdini's Suitcase is an exceptionally accomplished performance. The combination of people and puppets is exciting, well attuned and wonderfully fluent…
Lofotposten, Norway - May 2nd 2006
It’s like being taken out on a journey, and I’m exhausted, but it is fantastic to experience a show like this…the best show I have ever seen. Kjersti Jakobsen, audience member - Premier of Houdini's Suitcase - April 28th 2006
Erotischen Szenen in höchst aussergewöhnlichem Gewand.
(Mainzer Rhein Zeitung over Coming Soon- oktober 2003)
Hübsch ironisch und genauso deftig.
(Frankfurter Rundschau over Coming Soon - oktober 2003)
Ein pikantes Vergnügen; das Publikum geht am Ende höchst befriedigt nach Hause.
Allgemeine Zeitung over Coming Soon - oktober 2003)
Ridiulous humour and wonderful attention to detail.
Figurteaterfestivalen over Bernard’s puppet bonanza - oktober 2003)
Une approche novatrice de l’art du masque et de la marionette à gaine.
(Marionnettes de rue over Bernard’s puppet bonanza – juni 2004)
Als sehr beliebt erwies sich der schwarze Humor. Das skurille Puppentheater von Pickled Image war von makabrer Anziehungskraft. Der Held stand in Flammen und dem Puppenspieler stand letzlich selbst der Angstschweiss auf der Hose geschrieben.
Westwälder Zeitung, Tatjana Steindorf 04.07.05
Der kauzige Puppenspieler Pickled Image zog das junge Publikum in seinen Bann. Abends richtete sich sein Humor allerdings eher an erwachsener Besucher.
WZ
Das Puppentheater von Pickled Image ließ entgegen der deutschen Märchenleseart das Böse obsiegen. Anrührend abstoßend
Rhein Zeitung, Tatjana Steindorf
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Enchanting.
Houdini's Suitcase is an exceptionally accomplished performance. The combination of people and puppets is exciting, well attuned and wonderfully fluent.
The performance takes place in a set of suitcases. A performance that takes you on a ride through an old mans life. On a search for a key to the lock that will free the escape artist Malouth (the old man) from his trunk “The trunk of doom”, in every pocket and suitcase he discovers memories of past times. We are brought on journey where we take part in old magic tricks and card tricks, fakirs, fat ladies in the trapeze, a dancing circus bear and not at least the tale of love for a special woman, but also the love for life. The love for this woman is powerfully expressed when the old man finds a old ballroom dress in one of the suitcases, and dances slowly around with it. A sky full of stars is lit and we understand the woman was his big love, but she gets sick and dies after a way to short life. The love for life is powerfully expressed in scenes from the war, where we first meet the soldier out on the battlefield, and then in a bed at the hospital. In a dream he flies from the bed and out into the world, where he hovers around in the great silence. It turns into a nightmare when the sound of bombs and gunshots pears through his dace caused by painkillers. The performance is with no dialogue, but through light, sound effects and mumbles from the main character, you are quickly drawn in to this beautiful story that makes you laugh and cry. The music in this piece is specially composed by Simon Preston, who also have done the sound design. Sound and light becomes strong tools since the play is with no dialogue, and contributes to leaving the audience dumbfounded.
- Our goal is to move the audience, make them laugh and cry, says Victoria Andrews, one of the two (“Ildsjelene” is directly translated “Souls of fire” and is a Norwegian term that means hard working and dedicated people….) hardworking souls that is the spine of Pickled Image, the company behind the performance. They are based in Bristol, but have made the journey to Figurteateret to finish this performance. All the puppets were finished before arrival, but the costumes and set is made with help from local manpower.
The audience Lofotposten talked to after the show praised Houdini’s Suitcase. Maiken Garder and Kjersi Jakobsen describes the performance as “very well crafted work that blew them away”.
- It’s like being taken out on a journey, and I’m exhausted, but it is fantastic to experience a show like this, Kjersti says.
- Maiken says that it is all very thoroughly and well made, the special composed music, the set and the puppets.
- The best show I have ever seen, Kjersti continues, this must be “Theatre noir”
The two girls favourite character in the play was the puppet King of Pain, a fakir that swallowed swords and penetrated him selves with needles. This was also the character that really made the audience laugh.
Esben Nedreboe, Anette Lauritzen and Kjersti Svendsen had also found the way to Figurteateret this Friday. They all agreed that this was a very good show.
- The story is well told, says Esben, the set was very good, with all the suitcases that contained memories. We were brought into a nostalgic memory state of mind by the powerful way of telling the story. It was easy to identify with and take part in the story of the old man.
Esben means that figurtheatre has a undeserved reputation of being to narrow, and hope that more people gives it a chance.
- In this case it is amazing what two persons can do on a stage, we were convinced that there were 3 to 4 persons performing with the puppets! And there’s only the old man and his assistant. Incredible!
You have the chance to see this play at Stamsund International Theatrefestival in June, or during their tour in Nordland in November.
Maria Therese Enge - Lofotposten May 2nd. 2006
If you’ve got suitcases in your loft that you’re reluctant, yet tempted, to open, then you’ll appreciate Houdini’s Suitcase. Directed by Emma Lloyd, this production is not just about getting out of a locked trunk or suitcase (or enclosed water tank), although those elements are there, it is also about what really is in those trunks and suitcases: the material things with their associated memories and senses.
This familiar but effective metaphor is partnered with another: the train journey. The suitcases are piled up on a station platform where an old man is waiting, and where he relives the journey of his life – though not chronologically, which means this production is full of surprises. At the end he leaves with the train, after finally escaping the chained trunk … each to their own interpretation here.
A third metaphor is the circus, part of the old man’s memories, where the ringmaster reminds us of life’s ups and downs, pleasures and pain, sadnesses and frustrations.
Much of Houdini’s Suitcase is dark - the lover who dies of tuberculosis, the (under)performing bear who is cowed and then shot, the post-war dream of flying that ends in a nightmare of being shot down – but some of the darkness is comic. If you discover the rabbit you used to produce from a hat in an old suitcase, that rabbit will be a skeleton, right? Right! And not all the comedy is dark: a very sensuous pair of hands caress each other and delicately remove their pink satin gloves before almost drawing the old man back into the suitcase with them.
This production can be pinned down to neither mime nor puppetry. The ringmaster speaks but the old man mostly whispers to himself – until the end. The puppets vary in dimension – the bear is life-size, the ringmaster, Mr Pain (who has the audience squirming) and the WWI solider come out of suitcases, and two tiny earlier incarnations of the old man, the recovering soldier and the voyeur, are meticulously ‘worked’ by him. The result is both magical and mystifying, as are dreams and memories. It is a shock to realise, at the end, that there were only two ‘human’ performers, Victoria Andrews and Dik Downey: such precision and nimbleness is impressive.
The music (composed by Simon Preston) is crucial to this production. While the old man is looking at his photos, we know what he is looking at by the music we are listening to. When he is replaying dance music in his mind, the music gets louder at precisely the moment he opens the suitcase with his dead lover’s dress in. (After dancing with her, when he folds the dress away again, there is an unmistakeable smell of mothballs.)
Houdini’s Suitcase moves the boundaries of what most theatrical productions are like. As such, it is likely to go beyond your expectations as well as treating your senses and challenging you to explore its metaphors. The minimum recommended age for the audience is 12, which is probably right, but what an opportunity for a 12-year-old to learn that theatre isn’t about being told things by someone else. Lancaster has been very fortunate to have had this production.
7/9/07 Jane Sunderland
http://www.virtual-lancaster.net/reviews/dukes/dukes_2007/houdinisuitcase.html
