The past thirty years have marked a shift in the presence of visual theatre in the contemporary performance landscape. Institutions have embraced the possibilities for non-verbal forms of performance, from movement based work to puppetry, live art and circus, whilst the public sphere has been inundated with such work, ranging from the intimate to the spectacular, from theatres such as The Little Angel to public commissions for 2012. Work by companies such as Complicite and Kneehigh has been staged in the West End, the high-grossing Warhorse has been a theatrical phenomenon, and it’s far less of a surprise these days to see smaller companies such as 1927, creators of The Animals and Children Took to the Streets, having their work shown on the National Theatre’s stage.
Visual theatre is a field of performance that can communicate across language barriers and tackle problematics social, cultural and political through a different lens. Despite that, it’s still a field struggling for consecration, one whose theatrical language and individual forms lack precise definition outside of their immediate contexts. “I will be very happy the day that someone gets knighted in this country for their contribution to the field of circus or puppetry”, Joseph Seelig, Co-Director of the London International Mime Festival (LIMF) tells me. “Part of the problem is of course with the perception of visual theatre as a form of entertainment as opposed to an autonomous art form. There is a difference in perception. You might talk about circus culture, but that doesn’t mean circus is perceived to have a strong cultural validity- I’d argue that it certainly does.”
NoFit State Circus. Photo: FarrowsCreative
Seelig is the Founder and Co-Director of the longest running festival of international visual theatre in the UK, together with Helen Lannaghan. Both have pursued highly successful careers as independent cultural operators- Lannaghan is part of the producing team of the 2012 Cultural Olympics and Seelig has been working with international festivals and is also on the board of the BE Festival – and have been running LIMF for over thirty-five years. “There is a strong demand for this kind of work, which is what feeds both the festival and its audiences”, they tell me. Clearly this is part of its success and sustainability.
