Storytelling

One of the things I love the most about working with Sabotage is the dynamism of the storytelling. Our manifesto states our commitment to surprising, entertaining and engaging audiences. Using a range of techniques and approaches allows us to play and experiment in the rehearsal room, which then translates to the shows on stage.

First and foremost, Zoe’s writing is wonderfully witty and disarming so lends itself to both the poignant and surreal. The narrative is enriched with depth and colour so scenes can be distinctly pitched. Moving drama sits happily alongside ridiculous comedy.

At a Sabotage show you might witness a meeting between human characters, in near perfect period costume, secretly discussing smuggling in the confines of a church. A scene which is both true to history and realistically depicted. Then again you are just as likely to witness a pair of hermit crabs - hand puppets with upturned camping mugs on their ‘backs’ - fretting that the neighbourhood is becoming too diverse. Or perhaps you’ll meet a full sized octopus warning a school girl of the dangers of biscuit addiction!

You never know what you might encounter and are under no illusion that a story is being told. In an age when technological advances are inescapable in daily life, it’s refreshing when the mechanics of theatre can be clearly seen. For example by having all of the actors on stage all of the time. The cast play multiple roles and provide sound effects and background music for scenes others are performing. Audience members are in on the secret that something is being created before their very eyes. Shared suspension of disbelief is vital in bringing the play to life.

There are theatrical styles which audiences have grown to associate with Sabotage shows in recent years, such as the use of mask and puppetry. These techniques allow for a greater understanding of the messages and themes of the shows.

There are obvious parallels between using puppets which are manipulated by actors to portray characters pushed and pulled by fate and influenced by circumstance. There are no small characters because even incidental creatures in the story have been creatively imagined and constructed.

Some of our puppets are beautifully crafted with painstaking attention to detail - capturing not just physical features but also emotional expressions that lend themselves to the stories being told. The leading character in ‘The Looker’ Vida was created with rods and articulated joints and limbs that moved when the actors took her hands and feet. Vida was made to look exactly like the actor at the centre of the story. This allowed for puppet Vida to meet human Vida at a crucial point in the play. I was fascinated to find out how Zoe, who was playing Vida, had created a puppet so true to herself. She credits this to having been an artists’ model for many years, and having seen the proportions of her face and her expressions depicted from different angles in different styles.

Other puppets are created with found objects as we are committed to resourceful and sustainable theatre making. Something inanimate can swiftly be transformed using simple breath and movement to attribute human or animalistic characteristics and temperaments.

In ‘The Looker’ we have the Sisters of Sleep, created from old milk cartons and material. These are small enough for two actors to control several puppets at once so we are able to create a group of characters that move with the synchronicity of an ensemble. We also have a glove puppet which takes the form of a bird so that Vida can easily interact with the natural world outside her window.

In ‘We Are Not Shellfish’ we have puppets with moving parts, such as the goldfish who narrate the story and can swim freely through the space. We had great fun playing with the dimensions of their fish tank and discovering where the edges were! Whenever they ‘hit’ the glass they would hear a musical cue - a xylophone being struck - so they could react, change direction and swim off again.

We also have Leah’s rucksack which she takes with her everywhere. The rucksack is puppeteered at different points in the play and takes on the quality of an excitable puppet, interacting with Leah and commenting on the themes she faces on her journey.

The contrast between complex creations and those that are simple to recreate stretches the audience’s imagination and allows for absurd and satirical moments within a show.

From a practical point of view, as our actors play lots of different roles, masks are a swift way to switch between characters. In ‘The Looker’ Sarah had three different masked characters - one was young, humble and hardworking, another was strict, disciplinarian and bureaucratic, and the third was a Morris dancing sheep!

Sabotage’s characters remind us of the importance of expressing ourselves and learning how we can connect with each other more completely. There are thought provoking parallels between seeing actors disguised by masks playing characters struggling to articulate themselves.

Masked characters have long been used in folk story telling and they add a timeless, festive quality to the plays. Masks provide half or full face coverage, so actors communicate using their voice, physicality and energy. They often have an amplified scale of emotion. For both younger and older audience members this stylised, exaggerated technique is helpful to contextualise the detail of what is being said. It allows for dramatic character arcs and for lots of ideas to be covered in swift succession. Changes in the dynamic help to lighten the urgent and emotional issues the plays address.

Characters without text tell important aspects of the story. Leah, our central character in ‘We Are Not Shellfish’ is a masked character without a mouth. The audience can observe how she feels and what she wants even without language. We can witness the weight of an issue, or the impact of another character’s words or actions, when we see her literally crumple with disappointment or sadness before our eyes. Similarly we can see her grow in confidence and courage as she begins to believe she can make a positive change in the world.

There’s something levelling about not seeing an actor’s face. We can put aside our preconceptions and prejudices and relate the character’s experience to what we have been through ourselves. It is sometimes easiest to critique our society by exploring the heightened states which become inevitable when we fail to take action.

By using a range of theatrical techniques we can address issues from different angles and see that there are lots of ways to perceive a scenario and imagine possible solutions. The more challenges we face, both as individuals and within our communities, the more important it is to think creatively. We we approach adversity with light hearts we are more able to sustain ourselves. Live theatre champions and demonstrates this in ways we don’t experience with any other medium. We look forward to continuing to create colourful characters and wonderful worlds for our audiences to explore so we can all remain hopeful about what the future has in store!

words by Zinta Gercans

photography by Kitty Wheeler Shaw, Zinta Gercans, Made Better Media and Lisa Dear