Operation
This past week I went to see an amazing "play" entitled "Operation" at the Black Box Theatre in Melbourne. I put play in quotation marks because puppetry arts more accurately describes the show. According to a flier for the show, "This searing performance gives a rare insight into a very secret and personal war. Using the techniques of autopsy and crime scene investigation, you will bear witness to the hidden truth of a soldier's existence and an interrogator's determination to extract meaning in a silent battle for information." Read more about it here.
For the full hour of the show, no words were spoken. A human man operated on a human-looking doll, extracting a smaller puppet who became the main character in the drama. This smaller puppet grew up in the Middle East, moved to Australia, apparently was recruited for terroristic activities, and left behind a wife and child in Australia when we went on his mission. The whole thing was surprisingly moving, given that the only live human character served in the role of the interrogator/surgeon.
I appreciated two things most about the production. First, it invited the audience into the story of the main puppet in a way that did not shy away from the horror of terrorism/war but that also helped us to realize that even those on the other side of a conflict have a family and life story and to understand the lure of extreme organizations (be they political, religious, or otherwise).
Second, the play was staged in a way that I have never seen before. At any one time, the audience could take at least two views on the action. We could watch the play as it unfolded before us on the stage, or we could watch a screen behind the stage that broadcasted the play from the point of view of one of the characters. For instance, at the beginning when the puppet was being operated upon, you could see the puppet's view of the doctor doing the operation on the screen behind the stage. One of my favorite educators, Maxine Greene, frequently writes about the importance of multiple perspective taking, and here is a play that invites the audience to take multiple perspectives through its unique staging.
For the full hour of the show, no words were spoken. A human man operated on a human-looking doll, extracting a smaller puppet who became the main character in the drama. This smaller puppet grew up in the Middle East, moved to Australia, apparently was recruited for terroristic activities, and left behind a wife and child in Australia when we went on his mission. The whole thing was surprisingly moving, given that the only live human character served in the role of the interrogator/surgeon.
I appreciated two things most about the production. First, it invited the audience into the story of the main puppet in a way that did not shy away from the horror of terrorism/war but that also helped us to realize that even those on the other side of a conflict have a family and life story and to understand the lure of extreme organizations (be they political, religious, or otherwise).
Second, the play was staged in a way that I have never seen before. At any one time, the audience could take at least two views on the action. We could watch the play as it unfolded before us on the stage, or we could watch a screen behind the stage that broadcasted the play from the point of view of one of the characters. For instance, at the beginning when the puppet was being operated upon, you could see the puppet's view of the doctor doing the operation on the screen behind the stage. One of my favorite educators, Maxine Greene, frequently writes about the importance of multiple perspective taking, and here is a play that invites the audience to take multiple perspectives through its unique staging.
posted by Claire Bischoff at 8:05 PM
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