Manipulate Festival is an annual celebration of excellence in the fields of animated film, puppetry and visual theatre, bringing the very best of international and Scottish work to audiences across Edinburgh and beyond, in February each year. Creating a platform for creative exchange, debate and discussion alongside staging boundary-pushing new work for adult audiences, the Festival has gained recognition nationally and internationally for its innovative curation and unique blend of artforms.
The festival is a home for performance, installation and film works which are either driven forward primarily by image rather than text, or which breathe life into the inanimate. This can include physical theatre, animated film, object theatre, mime, circus theatre, puppetry, dance theatre and installation work. We are particularly excited by work which sits at the margins between artforms, plays with form or challenges perceptions.
By bringing together leading puppetry, visual theatre and animated film from across the globe with work which has been developed in Scotland, they aim to spark opportunities for artistic exchange and to offer our audiences a diverse palette of rich visually led work.
The 17th edition of Manipulate Festival takes place between 1 and 11 February 2024.
Track our full coverage of the festival below:
La Conquête (The Conquest) – Festival Theatre
Dorothée Saysombat on La Conquête (The Conquest)
“The language used is very metaphorical, symbolic, essentially visual.”
Last Rites – Festival Theatre
Ramesh Meyyappan and George Mann on Last Rites
“I think there’s something interesting about tackling universal themes from a minority standpoint”
Also part of our MimeLondon coverage
Pickled Republic – Traverse Theatre
Ruxy Cantir on Pickled Republic
“The language used is very metaphorical, symbolic, essentially visual.”
Ragnorak – Traverse Theatre
Alex Bird on Ragnorak
“We wanted to make a story about a fictional person’s experience of working through the end of their world. To imagine what that might feel like.
“I suppose our hope is that by creating a fictional story we might help people look again at the world in which we live now and the shared role we have in shaping it.”
Tess – Traverse Theatre
Charlotte Mooney on Ockham Razor’s Tess
“Tess has been adapted before for TV and film but it always struck us that Tess is often presented as an oddly passive and bloodless character, her physicality was often lost in translation.”
Also part of our MimeLondon coverage
Review: Tess – Ockhams Razor
“In performing the work, the cast finds moments of magic in Johnston’s choreography and arresting imagery that stick with you.”
Also part of our MimeLondon coverage
