REPORTING: RABBIT ZIELKE
The Land of Shadow is a unique multimedia puppet installation with two performances this week at Loose Cannon on Rossville Ave. This production is the combined talent of New York artists Daniel Fay, Melanie Patterson, musician Andrew Livingston with local artists John McLeod and Will Jackson. The puppets in this show are unlike anything you have ever seen. Daniel Fay took his love of puppets to new levels of experimentation and incorporates new techniques learned while studying under shadow puppet masters in Bali, Indonesia. Daniel’s vision combines with the music, talent and imagination of a select group of artists to create a world unlike any previous puppet show. This is a multimedia 
performance that removes the distance between audience and characters and literally brings you into the experience.
The Land of Shadow will be performed at Loose Cannon Friday, July 23rd at 8:00 pm and also at 10:00 pm. Tickets will be available at the door or in advance from brownpapertickets.com.
Listen to the story.
Around and About Chattanooga 
July 24, 2010 at 7:38 pm |
My wife and I visited The Land of Shadow last evening and enjoyed our venture into what we felt was a new frontier in puppetry arts, executed with a style and fluidity that is rarely seen, but always appreciated. The set was an art gallery, complete and enjoyable in itself, the music score was gifted, supporting the mood of the performance, and the puppeteers animating the monster as it strolled through the audience gave it the fluidity of a dancer in a dreamscape.
Having said that, certain technical flaws need attention as the piece is polished. First, the body parts of puppeteers should not be seen in the projections of puppets as they are animated. Second, sound quality should be given close attention so that the voices of the puppets are audible, which they were not always (for example, the voice of Grendel). From a theatrical standpoint, the movement between sequences was disconnected and slow-paced, cracking the delicate shell of suspension of disbelief so necessary in sustaining a dramatic performance. A stepped up pace, with some sort of transitional device between vignettes—such as a fluttering butterfly puppet or floating ribbon (used elsewhere in the performance)—might serve to remedy. Regarding the script, the Jonah and the Whale scene as well as the Grendel scene risked beating a dying existentialist horse to death (revision, revision, revision). Finally, so much more could be made of the Rabbi and the Gollum scene. I really thought it was going somewhere when, after the Rabbi animated the Gollum, the Rabbi disappeared, causing the Gollum great angst. Then this wonderful existentialist moment was dropped—or at least appeared to be.
In short, I hope that this happening catches on and becomes the success that its creators deserve.
C. Arthur Ellis, Ph.D.
July 26, 2010 at 2:18 am |
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