Bamboozle

 Bamboozle are a Theatrical Puppet company for the profoundly disabled. October Wednesday 16^th I attended a 45 minute performance, our seating was placed in a horseshoe shape outside of the lit performance area so that we had a “fly on the wall perspective”. The performance created a liminal space lit in the round with dimed yellow and red gels which encouraged the dream like state the performance attempts to create.

The performance brakes all concept of forth wall by actually placing the children in the performance space. The piece is tailored each time to the audience’s specific needs. Sue Picroft (the creator and director) explains how children with profound disabilities have heightened senses which they use to communicate and express themselves. Using sensory interaction as the main theme of the performance allows the children to have a chance to interact with each act performed, I found it was a really emotional journey throughout the performance as I watched each child with different disabilities interact and react to different senses being experimented with, but also incredible how welcoming they were to allow the performers to enter their comfort zone. Such as splashing of water, cuddling each body part with a pillow, wrapping them up in blankets which were used to sway their arms as though gravity was missing (Light as a Feather). This is a completely different style of performance to those I have watched performed on a professional theatre stage such as 1984 which doesn’t have any physical interaction. This piece did occasionally drop the 4^th wall however doesn’t create such an intimacy with the audience by remaining isolated on the stage in front.

Red and yellow gels also enhanced the Asian theme which I subtly recognized throughout. The performers wore large kimono like gowns. These also look a lot like dressing gowns symbolizing the dream like state. As the performance develops you learn they are attempting create the inside of a dream in the liminal space. These are enhanced as the performance develops a ritual motive, using the large gong to symbolize the entering and exiting of different stages, soothing chants accompanied by drumming beats encourages a hypnotic state. Even though I was watching from the outside I could empathize the effect the actions the performers created on the children relax and comfort me as though I was looking in on a dream. I was shocked at how much I could submerge myself into the performance allowing time to become absent and feel comfortable with it, like as if within a dream.