Headspace is a poetic response to the considerable amount of time we spend looking at screens and engaging in artificial experiences online or on social media, and it makes it physically impossible to use a phone or camera. Stuck inside one of three giant masks that they have just carefully put on, spectators have to watch with their own eyes. Cut off from the world, in silence and half-light, a small theatre of robots suddenly comes to life over a delicate mechanical soundtrack. No screens or recorded sounds are used in this non-virtual reality. It is all analogue sound and live action. For two minutes we are taken back to a place of calm, intimacy and the magic of mechanical invention.
Inside this other head appears a little robot, a child, moving lights and more. Through paradoxes like an automated miniature theatre, programmed mechanics for an intimate experience, use of robotic actors in a cut-off public space outside, and the combination of puppets and animatronics (electronics and mechanics), Headspace seeks to help us open our eyes on the world.
Electric Circus’ creativity and talent gives us a unique show, a jewel of mechanical reverie that will long be remembered by audiences, who just need to scale it up to real life.
BIOGRAPHY
Electric Circus was formed in 2004 in Amsterdam out of an initial collaboration between inventor Fred Abels and puppeteer Mirjam Langemeijer which involved the creation of two mechanical puppets, Ms Glasswool and Mr Rockwool, passengers on a rocket engine that would become the animation, The Mosquito. Since then, the duo have been exploring new approaches to puppetry, combining modern techniques such as animatronics and pure robot theatre. With Mono the Monkey, beggar musician Dirk de Zwervende Robot (Dirk the homeless robot) and Headspace, presented this year at Tombées de la Nuit, they have created a unique and poetic world of street theatre that mixes robots, animals and lifelike puppets, and constantly works with illusions. Electric Circus is a pioneer in street theatre and puppetry, and has travelled all around the world with its unusual mechanical creatures, which always produce a sense of wonder in audiences.
DISTRIBUTION
Conception, jeu, marionnettes, réalisation et mise en scène : Fred Abels, Mirjam Langemeijer et Rolf Meesters.
