Ariel Doron (Israel)
PLASTIC HEROES
16 May at 7.30pm (Wed)
17 and 18 May at 11pm (Thu, Fri)
Portuguese Premiere
Technique: Object theatre Language: Without words For audiences over: +14 Running time: 45 min.
“War is about to begin, now is the time to become heroes. But the soldiers are plastic, the battlefield a table and home is just a distant image on a screen. In a combat with no clear enemy or goal, the border between reality and fantasy blurs: is this really happening, or is it all just a game?”
-Ariel Doron
Violence, desire, hate and fear are put on the table as children’s toys are brought to life, and the innocence of child-like play encounters the bleeding reality of an adult war.
Plastic Heroes is made entirely of ready made children's toys, mainly those of soldiers, weapons and war. It also incorporates use of ipads, iphones and video. Combining a variety of object manipulation techniques, video technology and dynamic characterisation, Plastic Heroes presents challenging, funny and fast-paced collages of war and conflict, using bought off the shelf children’s toys. A surprising, humorous and fast paced collage of war images, and it manages to deal with hard and painful issues while giving the audience a funny, wild and refreshing puppetry experience.
Plastic Heroes has been invited to more than 20 countries, and is still intensively touring in festivals and theatres worldwide.
“Clearly one of these little miracles, which only puppet and object theatre brings. From a game of discreet naïveté and formal simplicity it manages to touch the nerves, bring up emotions and thoughts in a way that is anything but naive or simple.”
-Leipziger Volkzeitung
“Amazing Puppet Show... irresistible and fierce.”
-Thierry Voisin, Télérama
“Ironic, black humor masterpiece.”
-Aamulehti
"(...) Ariel Doron’s immensely watchable, Plastic Heroes, which strikes the ideal balance between comedy and pathos. (...) Children’s toys are used to tell an altogether much darker tale about the banality and horrific reality of living in a country at war. A tiger’s sleep is interrupted by tanks and helicopters, a soldier Skypes his family, another soldier just wants to dance yet is forced to fight. Doron evokes a series of vivid sketches that never fail to be both amusing, insightful and sometimes heartbreaking. He imbues each toy with a distinct personality (...)."
-Liam Rees, alledinburghtheatre.com ****
BIO
Since the age of 12 Ariel Doron has been playing with puppets, bringing to life whatever he lays his hands on, putting on shows and making short puppetry films. At the age of 30 he now masters a variety of puppetry forms: manipulates, directs and gives artistic advice for projects, always seeking to innovate and to discover more possibilities with the wonderful media of puppets.
He currently lives in Germany and tours with his shows Pinhas! and Plastic Heroes which have been invited to perform in festivals and theatres in over 20 different countries worldwide.
In addition to theatre work, Ariel also is as lead puppeteer for dozens of Television & Cinema productions, such as Sesame Street Israel, where he manipulates and gives the voice to the beloved character Elmo. He also gives workshops, masterclasses and guest lectures.
Ariel holds a degree in cinema from Tel Aviv University, where he explored the use of puppetry in Cinema. He took puppetry classes and workshops in the school of Visual Theatre, Jerusalem and L'institut International de la Marionnette, Charleville-Mezieres, France.