L’Amour du Risque

Staging by  Olivier Rannou

Construction & Performed by Morien Nolot and Olivier Rannou

The first in two shows at Manipulate that fringe into the dreaded realms of the ‘killer of creativity’, AI and robotics, Compagnie Bakelite’s L’Amour Du Risque reminds gleeful and invested audiences that perhaps, just now, it’s not all that it’s cracked up to be with their inspired thirty-minute piece of physical comedy starring Bakelite’s founder Olivier Rannou and some unique co-stars: robotic vacuum cleaners.

As farcical as any French comedy can be, with a dash of classic televised routines of pratfalls and frustrating antics, Rannou simply wants a nice candle-lit meal. Nothing too fancy or grand. But in this satire of the service industry at its worst and our personification of even the most commonplace of automatons (in this case, robot vacuum cleaners), Rannou’s nameless diner is served by a series of programmed vacuums balancing plates, candlesticks, puddings, and spoons all around the Fruitmarket Warehouse space to hugely comedic effect.

With some exceptionally precise timing as the robot’s buzz and whizz around the floor, somehow imparted with a personality to show confusion and even frustration at their diner, L’Amour Du Risque brightens the day of any watcher with its accessible show without any spoken word, accompanied only by brilliant comedic timing, a suitable soundtrack (graciously provided by one of the vacuums) and Rannou’s dour-faced expressions and performance.

Envahisseurs (Invaders)

Directed and Performed by Olivier Rannou

Returning to Manipulate (their first time since 2011) with not one but two productions, Compagnie Bakelite shift to the Traverse Theatre for a short-miniature performance from Rannou once more, though this time with a degree more discomfort and manipulation on their part.

Compacting themselves into what passes as a human disguise, Rannou’s make-up and costume are a stark difference to their Fruitmarket appearance as they perform Envahisseurs (Invaders) to keen audiences looking to enter a bygone era of flying saucers, briefcases, codenames, and just a hint of paranoia. Framed as a loving tribute and admiration of our obsession with alien invasion, particularly of the B-films and schlock movies of the fifties where UFO invasions were top-quality content, and for some audiences, a genuine concern.

Capitalising on this scale-model work, amplifying Rannous’ scale as the ‘other-worldly’ being plays God with the miniature-created world below, Invaders captures a sharp intake of comedy and drama as it pokes fun at the present while immersing itself into a creatively engineered past we all too often still return to in both appreciations and occasionally thought-process. From the structural sequence to the impressively curated soundscape to aid in storytelling, Envahisseurs (Invaders) playfully invites audiences to once more become mesmerised by the little green globs from outer space.

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