Czech artist Eva Kot’átková searches for what is usually invisible, hidden or suppressed. The cardinal topic for her work has been the situation of an individual who, although finding himself inside specific social structures, is not able to integrate meaningfully. The medium of theatre offers her a useful platform to talk about natural and learned movement, scripted and improvised speech, and the role of mediators such as objects and props.
In the presented work, a group of puppets and a child are put into action by three puppeteers who respond to the commands of a voice. They wander around, form groups or queues, participate in a therapy session, and restore each other by borrowing body parts. The child remains silent as it becomes, for the puppets, a seat, a staircase, a playground, an object to be punished and laughed at. Throughout, the puppeteers overcome tangled strings, broken limbs and costume changes to reveal the manipulative apparatus
