Artistic Director of visual theatre company Finger in the Pie, Alex Parsonage, compares the process of putting a festival together to making a mixed tape; having a sense of identity, rhythm, a mix of old and new, an emotive or narrative arch. Mimetic, Enfield’s second annual celebration of performance curated by Parsonage and Finger in the Pie, manages to navigate an increasingly varied territory of visual and physical theatre, puppetry, burlesque, cabaret and film. It draws on the company’s own work and history, engages with the local site, brings experimental and family friendly work together and, for the first time, is also establishing a set of awards to mark out the best.

The perception and presence of visual and physical theatre, particularly mime and puppetry, has certainly been changing over the past twenty years in the UK. Experimental work that engages with the particularity of this artistic language is more visible, and the wide scope and concerns of the field have become more tangible and varied. Finger in the Pie have been part of this process of visibility and growth, and Mimetic provides an interest platform in the context of this development.

The ambition is to establish a more active local culture around such forms of theatre that dominate with their visual and physical complexity, and for the festival Finger in the Pie have commissioned two headline pieces, Pinocchio by Pants on Fire and No Place Like by Le Mot Juste. From puppetry based on a Sci-Fi horror B Movie to an engagement with memories of the older generation living in care homes, Mimetic’s work is both playful and engaging, socially inquisitive and accessible. International work is also at the fore, with Sparkle and Dark and Spanish company Teatro En Vilo presenting a wide range of work, and more established companies like Paper Cinema are presented work alongside emerging practitioners.

Run Riot: Mimetic brings puppetry, cabaret, physical theatre and film to Enfield. It’s the second year the festival has been running, and this year you have chosen to place emergent companies alongside more established work. Can you tell us a bit about the impetus behind this? Is the work you have programmed informed by Finger in the Pie’s own engagement with such visual forms of theatre and performance, and its development as a young company?

Alex Parsonage: The work we’ve programmed is clearly influenced by our own tastes and areas of interest as a company. We’ve always wanted to show emergent companies alongside more established ones. Part of the joy of a festival is the dialogue both formal and informal that occurs between artists and companies working in similar fields. Above all we want to create a rich festival experience for all participants in Mimetic. Someone once put it to me that the most important and productive meetings that occur at business conferences happen over the coffee during the breaks. I think festivals are the same. As well as an opportunity to formally show work they are a fantastic opportunity for audiences, artists and companies to meet informally around the official program to spark new conversations, collaborations and ideas.

This year the festival brings together quite a mix of work, from family friendly shows through to more particular pieces of work headlining the programme, such as Le Mot Juste’s No Place Like and Spanish company Teatro En Vilo’s Interrupted, as well as Finger in the Pie’s own Moby Dick. There is a range of international work but also a mix of burlesque, cabaret, puppetry and film. How are you bringing these different performance languages together? What is it about visual culture in this instance that interested you in expanding the festival in this direction this year?

Alex Parsonage: There’s a very similar visual and performance language shared between cabaret, physical theatre and puppetry. For both practical and aesthetic reasons they all rely on story telling based on physicality and imagery not mearly language. So on the contemporary scene there’s a lot of crossover in performers working in all three medium. Thinking about it I wonder if this is partly because in one way or another they all have a shared heritage in the Italian Commedia dell Arte. In the contemporary setting this is probably most obviously felt by the influence of physical theatre training derived from the French theatre teacher Jacques Lecoq and his pupils such Philippe Gaulier - all of which to some degree or other draw on commedia.

RR: The festival s has a certain engagement with the local, be it community or site. You’re programming four very different types of stages this year. Can you talk a little bit about this?

Alex Parsonage: We’re really lucky to have a great relationship with Enfield Council and the Millfield Theatre. This year they’ve come together to really put festivals in Enfield on the map - which has opened up several new spaces for us. The main additional stage we’ve got this year is a 60 seat studio theatre which will run alongside the 100 seat Dugdale stage. This has given us the ability to program much more emerging and experimental work. This is great on many levels. Firstly it’s allowing us to program shows back to back, which is essential in creating the ‘heat’ of the festival experience for artists and audience alike. It also means we’ve been able to program work for longer runs - which will give the artists time to really make the most of their involvement with the festival and fully engage both with the other work in the program and with Enfield itself.

RR: What does it mean for a theatre company such as Finger in the Pie to programme such a festival? What vision and interest can an artist-led festival bring, particularly in such a distinct field of art practice?

Alex Parsonage: Programming a festival is like putting together the ultimate mix tape. It’s great for us to put together a snap shot of the work we feel is currently important, from companies we’re both inspired by and who’s work in someway speaks to the same passions as Finger in the Pie’s. It allows us to showcase work which is currently influential - if only to our own work - and to bring those companies together to see each others work and keep that chain of inspiration and collaboration growing.

RR : Mimesis is a word strongly associated with a particular theatrical culture and history dating back from Ancient Greece through to theorists such as Rene Girard, but it also presupposes a particular position towards performance and culture. What is your take on this word and its associations? Why this title for the festival?

Alex Parsonage: I suspect you could write a thesis on the title - I’d probably start with Adorno and talk about Mimesis as an end in its own right which speaks to the importance of art as an end rather than as a means - and how that allows the act of creativity to resists being sublimated into the nexus of capitalist commodification.  Which would be fascinating, to the handful of people interested in Marxian post structuralist aesthetics theory, but the reality I’m afraid is that we chose the name in it’s broadest sense. It pertains to mimicry and mime, which seemed kind of appropriate for a festival of mime and visual theatre! Though now you’ve asked the question I suddenly find myself wanting to write that thesis!

RR: Mimetic is launching a new set of awards this year in collaboration with One Stop Arts, looking at championing ensemble work, puppetry, cabaret, as well as directing and design. Why is a set of awards contained within the remit of a festival important to you, and what is it that these awards seek to support and make more visible?

Alex Parsonage: We’re really keen on giving the participants in the festival the richest festival experience we can. Within an industry which cant often afford to reward people financially, the respect and recognition of your peers is the most important currency. The awards are our way of giving something back to the participants, which will recognise genuine excellence and the contribution they’ve made to the festival. There are also always a huge number of unsung heros in any production team or company, awards like these serve as a thank you to a whole team, both on and off the stage!

RR: What do you think is Mimetic’s relationship to the field of visual and physical theatre? What are you most interested in bringing to the festival, and how do you feel this work has developed in the UK since Finger in the Pie have started working in 2004?

Alex Parsonage: I hope that Mimetic can be a yearly snap shot of the best in visual and physical theatre, as well as a melting pot of ideas and collaborations. The most obvious change to the scene that’s occurred since we founded the company back in 2004 is the explosion of cabaret and variety entertainment - which seems to be going from strength to strength.

RR: Are there are highlights of the programme you’re particularly looking forward to?

Alex Parsonage: As I’ve said programming a festival is a lot like making the ultimate mix-tape. Not just the individual elements but how they fit together with each other as a whole. That said with the best will in the world no one is going to be able see absolutely everything we’ve programmed (though I’d encourage people to try!) - so if I had to recommend a good cross section of the work we’ve got coming up this year I’d say you couldn’t go far wrong with. I’d particularly recommend Damsel in Shining Armour, Paper Cinema’s Odyssey, The Bridge and No Place Like.
 

Finger in the Pie presents
Mimetic 2013
11th - 27th July
fingerinthepie.com/mimetic