“Untermarionette” is a slow, blunt dissection of the mainstream technological narrative, an acknowledgement of machine addiction and refusal of treatment, a non-verbal manifestation of posthumanist theatre, a voluntary deviation from the technological race, a technological anarchism, death and resurrection of the puppet theatre, renunciation of evolutionary and cultural advantages, opening of a portal to a parallel technological universe, crucifixion of the über-marionette, declaring fanatical progressivism a heresy and encounter with the unknown.

The project “Untermarionette” implements a method developed especially for object-theater by director Erik Alalooga during his doctoral studies. The great challenge of the method is to create a situation where the performer makes all the mechanical performance partners needed for the production. The method does not involve any technical crash course, but triggers, by means of attitudinal shaping and various tasks, the actor’s immediate capacity to the maximum extent possible without any specific training.

Machines that are not characterised by the quality requirements imposed by the mainstream progressive narrative (speed, precision, strength, and more recently also intelligence) voluntarily abandon the technological race. It is not a question of technical inadequacy of the machine-builders, but of technological anarchism. We are not preaching a radical technophobia that invites people to return to the Stone Age. Technology is clearly here to stay. The question is whether we can view it from an alternative and personal position. From a position free from the utopian-dystopian dilemma of striving to become a god at one end and fearing to end up in a slime bath generating electricity for an artificial brain at the other.

Director and DIY lights – Erik Alalooga
Machine-makers and perfomers – Karolin Poska ja Sigrid Savi
Sound-design – Kenn-Eerik Kannike

Supported by:
Estonian Culture Endowment, Estonian Theatre for Young Audiences, Cabaret Voltà, Ajuokse Avangaar, Baltic Visual Theatre Showcase, OÜ Teatridoktor