Eva Meyer Keller as a puppet-master

In her latest production, the German Eva Meyer-Keller is the ultimate puppet-master. Pulling Strings is an updated ballet mécanique in which the Berlin-based performance artist uses only materials that she finds on location in the theatre. “Attaching strings to objects is a universal procedure that appeals to everyone.”

Pulling Strings displays objects and implements on the stage – brushes, a thermos, lamps, and electrical cables, for example. Connected to fluorescent and thus clearly visible strings, Meyer-Keller and performer Irina Müller manipulate this arsenal of everyday utensils from the wings. “I’ve been working on this idea since 2010,” Meyer-Keller explains, “my work develops intuitively and in dialogue with a test audience. At a Swedish workshop, I tied strings to objects so that I could lift, turn, and move them. It appealed to the people there. I realise this project will never be finished because the possibilities are infinite. Pulling Strings has already resulted in a production, installation, and video.”

Meyer-Keller uses the objects she finds on location, and that is no different in the main hall (Gouden Zaal) of the Beursschouwburg. “The principle is honest and simple: the theatre performs and manipulates itself. Every production is preceded by a long preparatory process. For example, I visit the space numerous times, talk to the technicians extensively, study the available materials, and take hundreds of photos. We then take all those things to the studio and work on them. Four days before the performance, we try everything out on-site. We actually infiltrate the team’s daily life: if we use the dustbin, they can’t use it for a week. At the Beursschouwburg we are using lights, microphone stands, tape, curtains, and tables on wheels, among other things. The large, long Gouden Zaal is probably the most difficult space we have performed in so far.”

In Pulling Strings, the objects have to become human due to the performers’ actions; an exercise that requires great precision. Meyer-Keller: “We merely make a suggestion. The performance is supposed to develop in the minds of the audience, and depends on the way they interpret our movements. By a process of searching and testing, we have developed a vocabulary of universal movements. In the first part, we show how various objects actually work. The second part refers to the history of dance and theatre. For example, a teapot and a microphone perform a scene from Le sacre du printemps or from Romeo and Juliet. This is not a comedy, however, we aim to evoke the underlying humour.”

Meyer-Keller is famous internationally for Death is Certain, a performance that premièred ten years ago, and ran for several sold-out performances in Brussels too. In the show, she “killed” hundreds of cherries or, depending on the season, cherry tomatoes in dozens of creative ways, in the setting of a kitchen/laboratory. “That production is still very successful. Pulling Strings is based on a similar concept. Both works are easy to watch – though that was never our intention – and they can be performed in various contexts. I receive invitations from theatres, galleries, social projects, and even restaurants. In October, I will be presenting a version of Pulling Strings in Sudan. That totally different culture is the ultimate test to discover how universal our language is.”

Eva Meyer-Keller: Pulling Strings 11/5, 22.00 (première), 12 (21.30: meet the artist), 14 & 15/5, 20.30, €12/16, Beursschouwburg, rue A. Ortsstraat 20-28, Brussel/Bruxelles, 02-550.03.50, www.beursschouwburg.be