{"id":109553,"date":"2025-01-20T15:26:06","date_gmt":"2025-01-20T23:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=109553"},"modified":"2025-06-01T15:49:06","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T22:49:06","slug":"la-manekine-by-la-pendue-at-mimelondon-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/la-manekine-by-la-pendue-at-mimelondon-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"La Man\u00e9kine by La Pendue at MimeLondon 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

La Man\u00e9kine by La Pendue at MimeLondon 2025<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Review by Jo Tomalin for FORALLEVENTS.com<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

La Man\u00e9kine by La Pendue, a theatre company from France perform<\/span><\/span>ed<\/span><\/span> January <\/span><\/span>14 <\/span><\/span>to <\/span><\/span>18, 2025<\/span><\/span> presented by MimeLondon at the Pit theatre, Barbican, London, UK. MimeLondon <\/span><\/span>2025, their debut year, <\/span><\/span>\u00a0is produced by <\/span><\/span>Helen<\/span><\/span> a<\/span><\/span>nd <\/span><\/span>Joseph,<\/span><\/span> the long time creators and artistic directors o<\/span><\/span>f<\/span><\/span> The London International Mime Festival, which completed its run in 2023. The new <\/span><\/span>MimeLondon is stated on t<\/span><\/span>he website to be: <\/span><\/span>an occasional series of curated\u00a0international\u00a0physical and visual theatre.<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

La Man\u00e9kine is an intriguing story adapted from a dark Brothers Grimm tale <\/span><\/span>The Girl Without Hands <\/span><\/span>about deception <\/span><\/span>and love<\/span><\/span> c<\/span><\/span>reated <\/span><\/span>and directed<\/span><\/span> by <\/span><\/span>La Pendue\u2019s Estelle Charlier and Romuald Collinet<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Performed by<\/span><\/span> Charlier and Martin Kaspar Orkestar <\/span><\/span>in French with English surtitles <\/span><\/span>the <\/span><\/span>sixty five minute show<\/span><\/span> is about<\/span><\/span> a poor miller, his daughter and the devil<\/span><\/span>. Charlier <\/span><\/span>is front and centre as the storyteller and puppeteer. Her<\/span><\/span> fluid movement that is clownish <\/span><\/span>at times <\/span><\/span>and <\/span><\/span>the choice of <\/span><\/span>speak<\/span><\/span>ing<\/span><\/span> with a gruff voice is a<\/span><\/span>n effective<\/span><\/span> mix of physical and character storytelling <\/span><\/span>with<\/span><\/span> puppetry. <\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Oh yes, and there\u2019s a one <\/span><\/span>person<\/span><\/span> orchestra with musician <\/span><\/span>Orkestar<\/span><\/span> who plays up to three instruments at the same time! Music underscores th<\/span><\/span>is<\/span><\/span> performance <\/span><\/span>beautifully<\/span><\/span>\u00a0and adds visceral atmosphere <\/span><\/span>from <\/span><\/span>Orkestar.<\/span><\/span> At times he leaves his musical base and becomes another character interplaying with <\/span><\/span>Charlier, <\/span><\/span>who<\/span><\/span> is a <\/span><\/span>a <\/span><\/span>compelling storyteller <\/span><\/span>puppeteer <\/span><\/span>who has fun <\/span><\/span>playing<\/span><\/span> the weird character<\/span><\/span>s<\/span><\/span> and so do we <\/span><\/span>watching them<\/span><\/span>. She works a range of puppets <\/span><\/span>and masks<\/span><\/span> from small creatures to large on an inventive stage that transforms into forests, hiding places, and more with minimal props.<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Charlier relates to the audience with eye wink complicity because she is in the know about what will happen as she joyously guides us through the fun journey of this tale. Projections add visual depth to the story and what seems at first like a simple idea unfolds into a gloriously charming performance experience. \u00a0Story adaptation and texts are by Romaric Sangars. We often say that theatre is an escape from the everyday into another world and La Man\u00e9kine is exactly that. La Pendue together with performers Charlier and Orkestar have created an imaginative performance with surprises that will resonate afterwards. Highly Recommended!<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

More information:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

MimeLondon
\n<\/span><\/strong>https:\/\/mimelondon.com<\/span><\/a>
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

La Pendue Theatre\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>Company
\n<\/b>https:\/\/www.lapendue.fr\/language\/en\/actualities\/<\/a>
\n<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

La Man\u00e9kine by La Pendue at MimeLondon 2025 Review by Jo Tomalin for FORALLEVENTS.com La Man\u00e9kine by La Pendue, a theatre company from France performed January 14 to 18, 2025…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":3.9,"yasr_post_is_review":"yes","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[885,888,715,881,882,118,887,883,884,759,890,889,816,886],"class_list":{"0":"post-109553","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-jo-tomalin","7":"tag-barbican","8":"tag-estelle-charlier","9":"tag-jo-tomalin","10":"tag-la-manekine","11":"tag-la-pendue","12":"tag-london","13":"tag-martin-kaspar-orkestar","14":"tag-mimelondon","15":"tag-pit-theatre","16":"tag-puppetry","17":"tag-romaric-sangars","18":"tag-romuald-collinet","19":"tag-storytelling","20":"tag-uk"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"