The re-telling of the first feature-length animation: P.S. It’s not Disney’s Snow White!

Lotte Reiniger may not be a household name, but Akimbo Theatre’s stunning production, The Animator, ensures that she is given the recognition she deserves. A true pioneer of animation, Reiniger created the world’s first feature-length animated film more than a decade before Walt Disney’s Snow White. With their signature physical theatre style, Akimbo Theatre brings her story to life in a deeply moving and visually captivating performance.

At the heart of the production is a mesmerizing light box that utilizes 3D-printed shadow puppets, replicas of Reiniger’s original designs. These intricate silhouettes are projected onto a canvas screen, which itself becomes a dynamic prop, transforming throughout the play to serve different functions. This innovative use of Reiniger’s groundbreaking techniques allows the audience to witness both the artistry and the painstaking effort that went into her work.

Akimbo Theatre is known for its physical storytelling, and The Animator is no exception. The cast seamlessly blends movement, dance, acrobatics, and puppetry, creating a performance that is both visually and emotionally rich. The play follows Reiniger’s journey as an artist in 1920s Berlin, a time of immense creative flourishing but also looming political darkness. The backdrop of rising fascism and censorship adds a poignant layer to the story, making it not just a celebration of Reiniger’s achievements but also a powerful reflection on oppression, feminism, and the resilience of art in turbulent times.

What makes The Animator so compelling is its emotional depth. Beyond the historical significance, the play is a deeply personal and heartwarming tribute to a woman who defied societal norms and technological limitations to create something truly revolutionary. The cast delivers heartfelt performances, drawing the audience into Reiniger’s world her triumphs, struggles, and unbreakable spirit. The themes explored censorship, the impact of World War II, and the erasure of female artists make it a thought-provoking experience that lingers long after the final bow.

Akimbo Theatre has crafted a production that is not only educational but also profoundly moving. The play reclaims Reiniger’s rightful place in history, challenging the common misconception that Walt Disney was the first to create a feature-length animated film. By fusing history with innovative theatrical techniques, The Animator succeeds in both honouring and reviving Reiniger’s legacy.

This is a show that will resonate with audiences of all ages whether you are an animation enthusiast, a history buff, or simply someone who appreciates powerful storytelling. The Animator is more than just a play; it is an act of reclamation, a visually stunning spectacle, and a deeply emotional journey that highlights the enduring power of art in the face of adversity. If you have the chance to see it, do not miss out!

Ever heard of Lotte Reiniger? A pioneering animator, she produced the first feature-length animation, The Adventures of Prince Achmed, eleven years before Disney’s Snow White. Yet, her name has mostly been lost from history. Until now…

Fusing devised theatre, slapstick, and shadow puppetry, Akimbo Theatre’s The Animator follows Lotte’s ground-breaking creation of Prince Achmed. The performance was underscored by the kind of shadow animation found in the film. It’s a gorgeously human craft; you could see hands darting in and out of the screen. This technique was paired with its modern successors, with an overhead projector creating the most unique and creative storytelling I’ve ever seen.

Animation is both the story’s content and how it’s told. The flat depth of stop motion was brought to life by performers mirroring the shadow puppets’ movements with eerie symmetry. At first, the audience had to warm up to the medium, while the actors took a moment to establish running gags and character tics. But once it took off, the performers flew.

The Akimbo group met at the Jacques Lecoq theatre school in Paris, contributing to their dexterous and athletic performance style. In the post-show discussion, they discussed Lecoq’s theory of le niveau tension, which instantly felt fitting. During The Animator’s strongest moments, this elastic between the performers rose and fell, expertly and silently communicating emotion. What’s more, the group takes an egalitarian approach to the theatre hierarchy, with seven creative directors from diverse backgrounds. It was fascinating trying to spot these different influences throughout the performance.

As the Akimbo performers excel at physical comedy, the show’s slapstick moments were its strongest— notably, a riotous scene at the censorship office. Farce and politics merge, pulling slapstick from the realm of he’s-behind-you pantomime into a biting comedy that subverts expectations. After the show, the performers discussed how gaps in Lotte’s recorded life gave them creative freedom to imagine how Lotte fitted into Weimar Berlin’s glittering subculture. However, not everything is creative license: it’s known that a same-sex kiss was cut from Prince Achmed. Throughout the play, we witness struggling creatives and queer communities becoming choke-held by an increasingly authoritarian government.

Sound familiar?

Although set in 1920s Berlin, The Animator’s intersectional creative mediums, anachronistic music, and universal political themes make it a liminal, timeless performance. Highlighting this, one audience member at Lakeside Arts had known the real Lotte and applauded how much she’d have enjoyed the piece. Next year marks 100 years since Prince Achmed’s release, which will hopefully garner much-deserved attention for this performances.

The Animator transcends the transience of shadow animation, and history, giving Lotte Reiniger and her craft a permanent place to shine – which is more relevant than ever in a modern world which increasingly mirrors Lotte’s.

1920s Berlin was a hub of subversive and revolutionary creativity. Within this vibrant environment, Lotte Reiniger developed a new style of silhouette animation and, in 1926, produced the first feature-length animated film, The Adventures of Prince Achmed. Yet, before seeing Akimbo Theatre’s play The Animator, I had never heard of her. Tragically lost to time, Reiniger’s story is being revitalized by Akimbo’s unique production just in time for the centennial of her film’s release, bringing her life to light through an entrancing performance inspired by, and featuring, her own art.

A devised play crafted by six equally powerful artistic directors; The Animator is a transportive amalgamation of theatrical styles. For the most part, the variety of handprints visible in the moulding of the play was incredibly effective as a reflection of the experimentation and fusions of creative spirits within the narrative. Thus, the audience was presented with something they’re greatly unlikely to have ever seen before, in such a way that emulated the startling innovation of Reiniger’s methods, encouraging the modern crowd so accustomed to animation to see it with fresh eyes.

On the odd occasion, I found the use of anachronisms somewhat jarring, as most of the show was firmly rooted in its setting of Germany in the early 20th century. Although it always succeeded in providing comedy, some of the play’s more irreverent moments—namely the almost cartoonish fight scene during the play’s climax, followed instantly by footage of public book burnings—seemed to me too harshly juxtaposed with the more serious topics, in such a way that some of the poignancy of the message of this scene was lost. However, the balance between comedy and earnestness was predominantly well struck and allowed the play to be much more engaging than if one tone or the other had been followed rigidly.

Far from naturalistic, though rooted deeply in reality, the staging was simple but impressively adaptive. The immobile screen centre stage was used especially diversely. Projected onto it, at some moments, were scenes from Reiniger’s films; while at other times, it displayed live videos of silhouette shorts that were created onstage on a multiplane animation table, modelled on the design of Lotte’s own; and finally, as a screen through which actors performed in shadow. Perhaps the most riveting moment of this shadow performance was that in which Lotte was seen to physically cut the gay kiss that had at one time been a part of The Adventures of Prince Achmed from the film reel. The visual obscurity of this silhouetted scene emphasized the silencing of many minority communities taking place at that time, and symbolically conveyed the control that was being taken from Lotte of her own silhouette-based art form.

Following the techniques of Jacques Lecoq, in which all of the company were trained at the École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq, physicalization of character was prioritized in The Animator. Besides the actress of Lotte, every actor took on multiple roles and differentiated them explicitly through posture and movement as much as through costume and voice. This exaggeration of the body led to fantastic physical comedy throughout the play, as well as interludes of dance and the aforementioned fight scene, all intricately choreographed but performed with natural elegance.

Many of the show’s most poignant scenes were entwined with short snippets of Reiniger’s animations projected onto the screen behind the actors. The animations themselves were absolutely stunning, the marionettes moving so fluidly they seemed alive, and the motions of the actors around them in these scenes were in intricate mimicry of the way they danced. Combined with the beautiful score, these physical theatre and animation sequences were utterly enthralling, and so full of the enchantment of the fairy tales that Reiniger often animated. The care and dedication to Lotte’s story that drove Akimbo’s production was practically tangible in these moments and resonated powerfully through the audience. I, for one, do not believe I will ever forget my experience of first seeing The Animator, and I ardently hope for a chance to watch it again in the future.

Akimbo Theatre’s The Animator portrays Lotte Reiniger’s narrative through her own medium, the beautiful world of silhouette animation. The play opens with a simple question, ‘In 1937 Walt Disney created the first feature length animation, or did he?’, this accusation posed to the audience via an overhead projector as an older version of who we soon learn to be Lotte, sits isolated onstage. This moment of reflection, situated before the action begins and the play’s pace accelerates, emphasises the importance of remembering people, and especially women, who are overshadowed by larger male voices. It reflects Akimbo’s hopes for the play, the aim being to undo what history has done, and for Lotte Reiniger’s story and achievements to be rewritten into the history books.

Akimbo Theatre does invoke creative liberties, as very little is known about Lotte’s early life, so new characters and situations are conjured to enhance the known narrative. The consequent characters are hilarious, with several reoccurring at multiple times throughout the play, to great delight from the audience each time. Through combining aspects of physical theatre, slapstick comedy, and multi-roling, Akimbo brings to life the vibrant backdrop of 1920s Berlin, with this lively atmosphere being enhanced by the accompanying score of Jazz tunes and Cabaret music.

Evidently, the use of shadows and silhouettes is fundamental to this show. The use of a multiplane animation table added an authenticity to the piece, as Lotte’s techniques were recreated onstage. The process of creating depth in silhouette animation was replicated for the audience to watch, its intricacies captivating but sometimes unhelpful to the rhythm of the show. Occasionally, the complexity of recreating this technique meant it considerably slowed transitions between scenes, with one particular moment leaving me wondering if something had gone wrong. However, once replays of Lotte’s original animation begin, the initial delay is forgotten and a sense of awe at what she achieved replaces it.

Despite relying heavily on animation, this show was surprisingly dynamic, with actors’ movements often being mirrored by images projected behind them. Here the silhouettes added an extra depth to the scenes, but the audience’s main focus was the exciting dynamicity and physical aspects performed by the actors. The physicality demonstrated also conveyed queer undertones to character relationships through fleeting moments of intimacy between them. Connected to the presentation of Lotte being forced to remove a gay kiss from the original version of ‘The Adventures of Prince Achmed’, these moments of queer expression add an extra depth to the performance and is something I would have loved to have seen explored in greater detail. Nevertheless, carefully crafted sequences of movement, full dance numbers and even a choreographed fight scene littered the play, transforming the exploration of the stop motion art form into a reflection of the vibrant reality of Lotte’s life.

Whether you know the name Lotte Reiniger or not, The Animator is a fantastic show that tells the truth about the first feature length animation film and showcases the incredible mind of Lottie herself. Her name is disappointingly unknown which is exactly what makes this performance so important as it tells Lotte’s story, and the struggle women faced in the workplace in the 1920s.

This show was a year and a half in the making, and it shows, with the Akimbo Theatre’s hard work and dedication when it came to showcasing how Lotte created her animations through their own silhouette cut-out projections. It is the clever use of these silhouette cut-outs that were projected onto a screen on the stage that really made the show so unique. The inspiration Akimbo Theatre took from Lotte’s own work is clear as they use these silhouettes to tell the story and introduce the characters in a fantastic yet different way.

The story of Lotte herself as she navigates the male dominated workplace and works hard to get her idea of silhouette animation the attention it deserves is inspiring to women and all that watch it. It is particularly inspiring that the Akimbo Theatre included her love of the Cabaret and the 1920s queer scene in Berlin as they refer to the Film Censorship that was prominent after the first world war. The scene of two men kissing from the original animation that Lottie and her team created was cut by the Film Censorship and by including this in the show, they showcase a lot of Lotte’s personality perfectly.

At the post show discussion, the actors talk about the lack of attention that they gave the character of Walter Disney. Due to Walter stealing Lotte’s ideas about animation and inaccurately being dubbed as the first to make a feature length animation film, the members of Akimbo Theatre told us that they didn’t want to make the show about him, and they wanted the show to be focused on Lotte Reiniger’s achievements. This, I believe, was what made The Animator such an incredible show as they truthfully told her story without clouding it with the male perspective.

Being overcome by a myriad of emotions and thought after watching The Animator: The Lotte Reiniger story was, among the audience, a common occurrence. There was something so refreshing in watching this piece of theatre.

What I found most intriguing was the implicit nature of the performance. Interesting themes were displayed, however, it never felt as if they are shoved in your face. One example would be the queer undertones of the story, the fact that Lotte endured censorship issues due to a kiss between the emperor and his favoured. The execution of this was powerful in that it was able to always link these themes back to the overarching story, the story and life of how Lotte Reiniger created the first animated feature length film. It allows an audience to relate to the themes presented while still grasping the depth of the story in its entirety.

From a stylistic perspective, the use of multiple forms of storytelling was captivating and engaging in a way that makes you truly feel the experiences of Lotte Reiniger. I loved the use of physical theatre paired with the animation of the light box. I found sequences such as the puff of cigarette smoke to be mesmerising as these sequences were timed so effortlessly and seamlessly that you truly get lost in the motions of the performance. The use of live human silhouettes was another point that should be noted as exceptionally great. Not only was it visually appealing, but its presence was able to heighten the emotions of the scene. It was able to create unforgettable slapstick comedic moments that left the audience laughing, to gut wrenching events that truly open your eyes to the dramatically underrated life of Lotte Reiniger.

Overall, this was a powerful story told by an amazing cast of people who clearly care deeply about the integrity of their work and the life of Lotte Reiniger. I would hope that this production is able to take their performance to as many places as possible, it is a truly moving story that needs to be heard in our society.

‘And these men, who think they can choose, are going to censor everything’ – Lotte Reiniger, The Animator.

Akimbo’s production of The Animator was one of the most amazing pieces of theatre I have seen recently. Their performance told the life story of Charlotte ‘Lotte’ Reiniger, who created the oldest surviving feature length animated film and was an innovator of multiplane cameras and silhouette animations: a woman whose story has not been told enough, or has been pied off in the name of Walt Disney.

Lecoq is inseparable from Akimbo’s work and it was really fun to see this come through in their performance; there were some really comical moments where the characters on stage used just their bodies and a metal door frame to create a space like a compact tube carriage, or a tiny room at the edge of the stage, and then had to convey this lack of space using just their bodies and exploring how they interacted with each other. There were moments where the comedy felt cartoonish, which I really enjoyed, and I found myself laughing out loud frequently, along with the rest of the audience. The humour in and of itself was inspired by Lecoq, where the production was playful from start to finish, and their changing levels of tension throughout made for an exciting and enjoyable watch.

The light box on stage was able to provide multiple layers to the production, and it is hard for me to express how clever it was. Its projection provided a background to the otherwise almost empty stage, and provided ‘props’ on the big screen for the characters to interact with. Not only did it aid the mechanics of the production in a fun and innovative way, it also acted as a physical prop for Lotte’s character, where her handy-work was projected in real time, and we watched the recreation of one of Lotte’s picture-by-picture animations produced. As we watched it come together, my jaw physically dropped and I felt the overwhelming urge to stand up and clap. The shadow puppetry and silhouette work were flawless and beautiful, also helped to emulate the beauty and power of the moving body without words, and how so much of human communication is through body language.

I really loved the interjection of Lotte’s actual voice in parts of the production, or an older version of Lotte’s character would come on stage and watch her own works of art projected back to her. It acted as a reminder for us in the audience that this is a true story, and a story that has not been told and watched enough. We must make an effort to remember that sometimes history is herstory, and celebrate the work and creations of women whose stories have been lost in the past. The echo of the pre-war Berlin during Lotte’s young adult life also provided some scary parallels to the state of our world today, where censorship is becoming all too normalised, we should be free to express creativity, sexuality, and individuality without fear.

Akimbo wanted to communicate to their audiences how amazing Lotte was, and how Art is inseparable from politics, culture and community, and how important it is to our ever-changing society. At the end of the performance, a woman in the audience who knew Lotte during her lifetime stood up and told us all how beautiful the portrayal of her character was, and that Lotte herself would have loved the show. If that doesn’t convince you to go, I don’t know what will. I will definitely be going again, and it was a privilege to watch such an incredible piece of theatre.