Clay puppets bring absurd and sad stories to life

At the start of God’s Beard one of the actors explains its structure: ‘This play is a bouquet of flowers of many varieties.’ And it does indeed consist of many different kinds of stories that explore familiar Hotel Modern themes such the Second World War and solace. This diversity leads both to deeply melancholy scenes and to lighter, more absurd moments. And the group manages to achieve this using ‘only’ clay puppets and maquettes.

What is unique about Hotel Modern is that in their plays, it is not the actors but tiny clay figures that take the leading roles. The human actors move these little puppets within the scale model sets on stage, meanwhile filming these scenes and projecting them onto a large screen. Anyone who thinks they can’t be emotionally affected by these lifeless puppets is wide of the mark. Each and every one of stories is brought to life through the clever use of sound, light and dialogue, and you quickly find yourself identifying with the puppets.

One of the stories revolves around an elderly man recollecting the Second World War. His pre-recorded voice is played while the actors provide the visual accompaniment using the puppets, allowing us to both hear and see how the man had to go into hiding and how his mother was betrayed. The most powerful part of this story, however, is when the actors bring the narrator’s father’s story to the screen. We see how the clay figure representing the father is put onto a train to be transported to a concentration camp. The dim moving lights convey the shadowy and ominous atmosphere of people going to meet their fate without resistance. This is a fine example of just how detailed the scenes are, and this heightens the impact of stories. And it becomes extremely emotional when we watch the poor father’s body being burned, while listening to the old man sobbing the last words he remembers his father speaking: ‘be a man’.

Fortunately, there are also more light-hearted and absurdist scenes in God’s Beard, such as when one of the actors explains how the play got its title. It turns out that the scenes in God played a role were all deleted from the final version, and only his beard remains. It can – literally – be seen in the play. But laughs can still be had watching some home videos God made of the creation. In a simple but highly amusing way, they show how ‘God’ created the world.

Everything about God’s Beard shouts of the enormous love that went into making it. The keen eye for detail in the maquettes, the sound effects and the music, the lighting, the camerawork and the decor are all perfectly combined to bring the story to life, and to do so convincingly. It doesn’t matter whether the story being told is funny, absurd or sad, because Hotel Modern are utterly convincing and emotionally authentic every step of the way.

25-12-2012