‘Watching machine’ was the name given to those 19th century boxes/containers creating illusions through mirrors, shutters and sliding panels. In the performance, the watching machine is the stage itself, where the performer plays with light, shadows and reflections to experiment with perceptual illusions that question and doubt the concept of representation and theatrical convention: a woman flies thanks to a mirror, a face changes profile and appearance through the game of shadows, the inside of a mouth becomes a lamp that illuminates us, and the entire theatre space takes on different dimensions in a few seconds. These and many other images make the performance, and although they are all fabricated before the spectators’ eyes allowing them to see the make-up, they remain hypnotic, magical and surprising. A work that encourages us to look at the world around us from other points of view.
On a white stage enclosed by black walls, the impeccably dressed artist in a white jumpsuit is standing, positioning microphones. He arranges them harmoniously spread out on the white stage. On the black back wall, he arranges white adhesive tapes. When the light goes out, a door in the wall opens. It is the first and surprising optical illusion of the show. Macarena Recuerda Shepherd, alter ego of artist Lidia Zoilo, slowly leads us through a fascinating world of optical illusions, of visual deceptions full of magic and poetry. Her masterful play reflected in a mirror is a real treat, greeted by continuous laughter. As if she were an astronaut in space amid mists and half-light, the artist transports us into a hypnotic sound-visual-choreographic universe made of beams of light, which end up filling the entire stage space.
The Watching Machine is a beautiful, entertaining, stimulating, relaxing, fascinating and hypnotic ‘visual theatre’ performance, which some have described as performative illusionism. In any case, a work of visual games of bodies, lights, shadows, mirrors and reflections of unquestionable plastic and poetic beauty.
Ferran Baile (recomana.cat)
‘For me, The Watching Machine shows, in a very simple way, the essence of theatre. The complex perception of dual realities. The actor and the character, reality and fiction, the conventions of watching. Illusionism puts the representation game right under our noses, but for me it only works if we show the trick. It is very important to keep both edges together: reality and fiction. Thinking that illusion is a delusion agreed upon with the spectator helped me to build up this repeated game of deception. Finding this playful dramaturgy of illusion is the heart of the work.’ Macarena Recuerda Shepherd
