Blog post 13
By Isaac Overman
June 16 2022
Today we ventured to the Victoria and Albert museum. Our goal was to view their exhibit on theatre over the years. Several items immediately jumped out at me. The first was a massive horse puppet that was used in a production of War Horse. The puppet was not only stunning but immediately contrasted against the puppets that were prominently featured in Life of Pi. Both puppets where of considerable size being about six feet long and tall. These creatures have one to three actors moving different parts in order to create life like and accurate movement. Seeing this live in Life of Pi was incredible. They had four animals that moved so life like that it was a bit frightening. And this element is curtail to both stories. If the Tiger looks like and acts like a puppet then the sense of danger is lost from the play. I imagine it is the same with a play like War Horse. If the horse moves like a robot instead of being one of the stars of the play—it becomes goofy and unbelievable.
The other thing that stood out was a trap door that was made up of many triangles. It is designed that way so it appears flush like the rest of the floor but then allows an actor to fall straight through the floor. The one at the museum was from a production of Peter Pan. This also reminded me of Life of Pi because at one point Pi goes under water and then pops up at other locations making it look like he is swimming on the stage. Obviously it was closer to a latex material then wooden triangles but it shows the evolution of stage tech that yields similar results through different means. Life of Pi was one of the best plays that I have ever seen in part because the stage design for the puppets and stunts were so brilliant. The Victoria and Albert museum reminded me just how special some of these plays can be.
Theatre in London U of A 