A few weeks ago I went up to see Animated Exeter, with particular interest in the work of the Quay Brothers and an exhibition by a theatre group called Forkbeard Fantasy.
I first heard of Forkbeard Fantasy when they brought their play “Fall of the House of Usherettes” to Exeter’s Northcott Theatre in February 2006. It was a piece which incorporated live performance and puppetry along with projected film and animation sequences, all brought together in an extraordinary creative and comic show. It told the story of Bernard von Earlobe, a film archivist set on rediscovering the secret of Liquid Film; along the way the play references influences as varied as (obviously) Poe, Shakespeare, The Shining, Don’t Look Now, Georges Méliès and the Lumiere Brothers.
Alongside their 2008 production titled “Invisible Bonfires”, which charted the history of the Carbon Weevil (or humanity), Forkbeard Fantasy put together an exhibition of puppets, props and videos from their back catalogue. There was, sadly, very little from their “Fall of the House of Usherettes”, the exhibition seeming to focus more on interactive models which given that it was part of the Animated Exeter festival is perhaps understandable. Certainly the day I visited there seemed to be a huge number of children enjoying the show. Perhaps because of this audience, Forkbeard Fantasy seemed to have steered away from some of their darker humour.
tbc
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