Edinburgh Fringe 2024
Low Down
In a time when recorded music and AI are around us Buzzcut perform everything live. A dedicated performer at the keyboard playing beautiful music adds immensely to the storytelling and events as they happen, and moves the story along. So much care, attention to detail and love has gone into this show and it pays off in the excellent end result.
Review
When dog sitters Mr and Mrs Douglas arrive to take care of a brown dog while its owner is away they fall inadvertently into an intriguing situation! The brown dog is nervous and passes time in the house hiding behind doors watching and listening. The temporary inhabitants have important things to discuss and are self involved. Perhaps the brown dog would like to play or be included in the couple’s day to day? They are busy and so the brown dog soldiers on through a parallel existence.
This is visual storytelling at a high level combining multimedia, live performance of music with sound effects, exquisite puppets and set design. Several puppeteers move deftly in and around the set holding cameras, narrating, speaking dialogue or manipulating puppets. The beautiful set is like an idyllic toy town street with tidy houses nostalgically furnished in the 1960s with cosy sofas and black and white chequered linoleum tiles on the kitchen floor. Puppeteers create the images and movement from objects, nifty props and their own hands on the set that is projected live on a large screen above them. Putting all these pieces together is complicated for the puppeteers and it even takes a while for us in the audience to realise the expertise and precision needed to create this live performance and film.
The story unfolds in a low key fashion that is so creative in its object and camera angle choices that it is almost surreal. However, the couple, Mr and Mrs Douglas are portrayed by an interesting mix of items as they walk around the house and garden or sit down for a chat. The brown dog is made of a smooth base covered sleekly in brown felt, with a kind snout and warm eyes. This puppet is held with two rods and string to make the tail wag. The crude string is a marker of the handicraft materials and off beat designs of this innovative company, Buzzcut. Formed in 2021, the company run by Artistic Director Gabe Windsor has produced three projects so far, together with several creative collaborators and performers, Bark Bark is their third creation. Buzzcut focuses on projects that encompass playfulness and new technologies with innovative visual storytelling.
In a time when recorded music and AI are around us Buzzcut performs everything live with a dedicated performer at the keyboard playing beautiful music that adds immensely to the storytelling and events as they happen, and moves he story along well.
So much care, attention to detail and love has gone into this show and it pays off in the inspiring end result. The little brown dog continues meandering around the house and goes on adventurous walks through a wood while Mr and Mrs Douglas discuss deep things and bicker in between. Empathy for the brown dog is a no brainer as we follow the series of events in the story through live dialogue, narration, beautiful hand made sets, and the three main characters. The performers multitask as a team switching between speaking, moving objects or cameras, manipulating the brown dog and using everything else to create this poignant and moving story.
This is an imaginative and creative show with gravitas, heart and a slightly mysterious edge that is totally engrossing. See it if you can!
