LOW LIFE

“Low Life” (literally “A Degraded Life”) is a distinctive work by the renowned and acclaimed British puppetry company Blind Summit Theatre, in which puppetry crosses traditional boundaries to reveal the reality of people living on the margins of life. The play’s script is inspired by the work of the famous American writer Charles Bukowski—his poetry and prose, full of nihilism, irony and melancholy. In this performance, audiences encounter various characters living on the fringes of society: lonely drunks, losing gamblers and weary writers, living in a hopeless daily existence yet still retaining their sarcastic sense of humour. Their stories—both sad and absurdly funny—are told through Blind Summit’s distinctive puppetry aesthetic.

Blind Summit Theatre is an internationally acclaimed company, known for its innovative approach to puppetry. It draws on table-top puppetry and Western-adapted Japanese bunraku techniques, in which puppets are controlled by several performers, giving them a unique expressiveness and fluidity of movement. In “Low Life,” these animation techniques intertwine with live performers, physical theatre and expressive visual effects to create a hypnotic, surreal stage world. Created in London in 2005, “Low Life” received excellent reviews for its originality, black humour and profound analysis of human nature. This is a provocative, surprising and engaging performance. “Low Life” is a journey into the backstage of human existence, where chaos, absurdity and glimmers of fragile hope run wild.