Blind Summit's LowLife-The Blue "Men" Sketch

On Saturday I went to see LowLife performed by humans and fellow puppets of Blind Summit. I was very envious. I should have been on stage with them but I am a bit of a bargain basement puppet. Like me, above, there are a multiplicity of these chaps, too, as you can see. But all the other puppets in the show were unique and handmade.

However, these blue 'men' were probably the most significant part of the show philosophicallyand in terms of entertainment- if not puppetry- the best. Each of the characters is a blue man and the same character, yet different, acting different roles but being the same personality, give or take a few transformations. It raises the question of identity and replication as in Being John Malkovich.

If there are a hundred 'me's' then who am I?

There are myriad me's but I assert at least that I am unique. In the LowLife sketch because they pretty much all look alike what distinguishes the same characters is not so much their appearance, as their actions. And but for God's love for each human and puppet, I hope, this is also the case for beings. We are defined by what we do but what we do is sometimes determinded by how we look. Take the nodel Kate Mossbury for example.

In terms of puppetry the best peformance was by the plumber. You can see his picture below. He did everything action packed in slow motion as he tried to reach a giant drainpipe he was supposed to mend. In his actions humans their own kinetic behaviour magnified as it were. Puppets show humans new perspectives on how they move and behave.

Bud the plumber in LowLife

Please write to: Wandsworth Borough Council to save the Battersea Arts Centre from having its funding cut.

www.wandsworth.gov.uk

Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! if you don't support the kultus that stops you from acting like a wild beast of the jungle. God knows London is a jungle these days.....