Edinburgh Fringe 2024
The Gummy Bear’s Great War
Batisfera (Italy)
Genre: Contemporary, Puppetry
Venue: C Alto
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
This is structured with skill. Following the idealism of a war fought for no apparently good reason whilst pointing out there may not be many actually good reasons. With all of the theatre arts used to such great effect it is the bets hour I have ever spent in the company of a massive number of Gummy Bears without eating them.
Review
Performed mainly in Italian, this is just great.
The premise is that the Gummy Bears have decided to go to war with the dinosaurs. And so, they go to war. They have no real chance, but they go to war. Whatever bravery they may have, allows them to try with gusto but in the end we all leave with a gummy bear.
Over seven chapters which a voiceover brings to us, whilst the subtitles are projected onto a black screen in front of the performance table, we follow the diplomacy, the decision making in both camps and then the war. But there is so much more to this than a few pieces of candy and dinosaurs stamping paper. In fact, it has a lot of pieces of candy, perhaps even hundreds of pieces of candy and they stamp a whole lot of papers, many, many papers, but it is still about so much more.
We are living during a time when violence is being touted as a legitimate means through which you gain advantage. It is a means of expression which is being used and utilised to make a point which is much easier to make through discourse but why bother when you can take to the streets and try and get some new vapes and a colour TV for free. Or why make the argument when you can send in a tank to destroy the lives of people, you don’t like? And in that context declaring war on the dinosaurs which is likely to end up with your certain death does not seem that stupid.
But the techniques being used to portray this series of decisions and events is what marks it out theatrically with maximum effectiveness. You take absurdity and raise it a notch. The Gummy Bears are real Gummy Bears. The dinosaurs are real people. We begin by being introduced to the Gummy Bears with single spotlights from table lamps on the table. They are each given names like Apple Green which mark them out as the flavours they are and the colours they appear. There is an innocence in their naming which matches the naivete they have in picking a fight with the dinosaurs. That folly is doubled down on when their ambassador is trodden upon and then chewed up. Will they give this up? Hell no. The brilliance is underscored by the use of a match box for the coffin when they go and pick up the Gummy Bear ambassador chewed out – literally and not metaphorically – by the dinosaur.
The two dinosaurs played by two actors appear in their office dealing with the administrative minutiae of running their empire. They are there to show that they have the means of production and the realm they rule over in hand. Or paw? Then they go to war it with a ruthless efficiency that marks them out as just that – ruthless.
One side being the aggressor, the other being the defender but the more effective war monger of the two is a different narrative to one we might imagine but it is a truly effective one. Aside from the space which was truly not the place to have this as it was cramped – overly so – and uncomfortable – this is a great piece of fringe theatre that was packed out when I was there deservedly so – but if you can, do go and the least you can expect is a gummy bear on the way out.
