Lorna Irvine reviews 'a visceral anti-war statement'.
As part of Glasgow's Discover Indonesia season, Papermoon Puppet Theatre's Mwathirika (Swahili for ‘victim’) is a vivid piece of storytelling, centering on the anticommunist purge of the mid-sixties.
Four puppeteers (Elisabeth L Veani, Beni Sanjaya, Anton Fajri and Fransiscus K W Sunu) bring colourful life to the Cold War era from the perspective of two small children, Moyu and Tupu.
It is rich with symbolism: red balloons represent freedom or a shattered innocence, a wolf-like creature the war itself. The stunning accompanying video by Banjar T A Cahyo reinstates the fact that civilians are mere cogs in the machine.
There are some beautiful visuals and the staging is mostly effective, ranging from carnivalesque to dark, but the scenes don't always transition coherently.
Still, it is a visceral anti-war statement, particularly when the puppeteers appear as masked soldiers and run out into the audience, and there is something irresistible about a little boy puppet peeing on the floor...
www.cryptic.org.uk
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Papermoonpuppet.com
Discover Indonesia is at various venues across Glasgow in September.
Mwathirika (Part 1): http://youtu.be/sMC5d051kYY
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