Jane Taylor, Ubu and the Truth Commission: Use of puppets and multimedia

1. To what extent has modern theatre successfully incorporated puppetry and/or multimedia? Does this enhance or detract from the overall production? Use examples from local productions you have seen, if possible.

I feel that it is very much dependant on a particular production whether or not the incorporation of puppetry multimedia is successful. It is hard to tell whether the inclusion of such aspects into modern theatre will enhance or detract from the production under one witnesses the actual play being carried out and can analyse if such additions are assets to the piece or not. It is very much dependant on the competent handling of such technology by the director and playwright, marrying aspects of modern theatre into acting and stage. If the right balance is achieved, then the results can be exceptional, however care should always be taken to ensure that the additions do not overshadow or create conflict between the action onstage and what is being shown.

Having watched the recent production of Agamemnon, which included use of multimedia by projection of several war-scenes onto the backdrop of the set during portions where the war was being spoken about, I felt that such a use of multimedia was adequate and served to show scenes of battle and men riding on horseback ready to defend their land. It was a short clip, and thus I felt that the timing was sufficient because ultimately the role of multimedia in this case was suitably filled. While it’s role was displaying something that actors onstage would not be able to achieve due to sheer lack of men and space to create the massive scenes of war, it did not detract from the overall performance by being overly distracting and the director ensured that the clip did not go on for too long, lest it appeared unnecessarily draggy to the audience.

I believe that with the development of so much technology nowadays, it will become more and more accessible to the people and more theatre productions will be found to have (successfully or not) woven the use of multimedia into their performances. Effects will also come into play to create elements that pure acting and dialogue is unable to, and thus the theatre experience has potential to become a richer, more textured piece of art.

-Clara