Return To The Forest Review | Factory International at Aviva Studios | Manchester
- Frances
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
Spotlighting their 30th anniversary with a reflective, puppet-filled caper, Theatre-Rites’ Return To the Forest is a five-piece fantasy built on collaboration and heritage.
The Aviva Studios audience gets to participate in an after-hours visit to a museum of ancient masks, maps and a stolen heart, trapped in place but yearning to break free from their enclosure. As the family-friendly show unearths its five items, director Sue Buckmaster playfully crafts their journey with a multitude of designers who channel the objects’ tales through stunning puppetry, soulful music and magnetic choreography.
The production draws on five adventurers set out to recapture these items, restoring and regaining their origins as they travel deeper into the forest. Despite its minimalist staging and small ensemble, this team unify and integrate into the open planned stage. Teele Uustani impressive puppetry allows her to mould herself into several figures, dropped set pieces allow the group to metamorphasise and a little assistance from its younger audience help expand the team.
Building on a traditional Niger Gelede mask, reimagined by artist Bunmi Agusto and designed by Alison Duddle, the ensemble are handed the space to channel the Gelede masks ancestral spirits through Gregory Maqoma’s (The Global Playground, Manchester International Festival 2021) choreography. This beautifully collaborative piece showcases the earthy and fantastical mouldings of Theatre-Rites’s work, which moves between magic and nature. With a deceptively simple and natural coconut matted face, the group comes together in a celebration of women and balance to preserve a tradition passed down to future generations. Surrounded by the beautiful vocals of Xolisile Bongwana, the show’s blend of tradition and modernity offers a unique and hauntingly memorable style.
Theatre-Rite brings a celebratory atmosphere to its show of reflection that leaves technology behind to showcase the heart of nature. With an appreciation for the simple things in life, these artists breathe new life and recognising new perspectives for these ancient objects. Alongside the meditative music from Bongwana, the calabash plant is used as a bowl, a musical instrument and originally food, to appreciate the joys and necessity of nature. While a ceremonial Ishoba stick is presented as a tool that can be used for healing and brings questions of the varied levels of protection that nature brings.
This production also offers audiences a sense of wonder and play as it is partly interactive. Interactive in the sense that you will be standing and moving between two spaces. Factory International is perfect for demonstrating how uniting and responsive live theatre can be in connecting with audiences. There are no social anxiety-producing exchanges included, but like Jean Chan’s Knotted Heart, the show offers a peaceful reunion for the Aviva Studio audience to come together for an event surrounding connection, collaboration and care for the traditions that keep us grounded. Return to the Forest is a thoughtful, dreamlike production, short and sweet in its celebration that reminds us to enjoy nature and community.
Tickets are available via the Factory International link