EDWARD'S HOUSE OF
STRING
Performed at the REDCAT, Walt Disney Concert Hall; The Traverse in Edinburgh during the Manipulate Visual
Theatre Festival and The Arches in Glasgow
A modern fable from
puppeteer Cindy Derby’s Edward’s House of String is a moving and
mysterious performance in which stop-motion animation, live puppetry and hand-crafted scenic elements create potent images
that delve into realms of psychological loss. While unraveling threads and rustling trees, Derby manipulates the lonesome
Edward and the world that surrounds him to illuminate the unseen forces that shape his existence. In doing so, she speaks
to the power that even the dimmest memories have to influence and transform the psyche.
Writer, Designer and Director: Cindy Derby
Composer: Ellen Reid
Musicians: Lauren Baba and Kassandra Kocoshis
Puppeteers: Chelsea Adidier, Cindy Derby,
Whitney Raene and Miggie Wong
Director’s Assistant: Victor Sandoval
Stop-Motion Animation: Cat Bruce,
Cindy Derby and Ania Leszczynska
Special
Thanks to REDCAT's honorarium and Puppet Animation Scotland's Creative Development Fund 2010-2011
"Derby's staging brims
with canny invention and moments of inspired visual poetry." -La Weekly
Original Production
in Scotland
Sound design by Ben Dunn
Set design collaboration with Kelli Des Jarlais
Set build by Adrian
Russel Lamb
Cindy Derby was awarded by Puppet Animation Scotland’s Creative Fund
2010-2011 to support the creation of this new work. What first began as a children’s picture book “House
of String” has evolved over time into a theatrical fairytale utilizing a combination of puppetry, string, and stop-motion
animation as a method to achieve a poetic language. The piece has emerged from the sensory exploration of her visual
concept through textures, colors and sounds-which has been inspired by Pascal LeCoq’s Laboratory of Movement Study.
In result to her performances at The Arches and the Manipulate Visual Theatre Festival in Edinburgh, a continual development
will follow with an aim to share more of Edward’s world to varied audiences in Scotland and abroad.
Edward’s House of String told, using a combination of puppetry and stop motion animation,
‘a twisted tale about a lonely man Edward and a mysterious string that helps him thread together memories of his past’.
With a tree-like sculpture made with balls of wool and reels of cotton in muted colours and a ‘screen’ for the
stop motion animation woven out of the yarn, Cindy Derby gave a skilful performance, transforming her hands into birds and
somehow managing to invest them with real emotional content. - Justine
Blundell, The Edinburgh Guide, *****
