The Eye Which We Do Not Have

Inspired by the thrillers of Alfred Hitchcock and the critical discussion of cinema by GIlles Deleuze,

The Eye Which We Do Not Have uses a set of 6 frames and 8 screens with a pulley system to create a transforming stagespace that transitions from small to large, vertical to horizontal, and static to mobile.

The formal experience of a transforming stage suggests a transforming viewpoint like that of a camera in motion. Incorporating close-ups, long shots, pan and zoom, The Eye Which We Do Not Have uses a cinematic visual language to deterritorialize its imagery, creating affect, mood, and suspense with live puppetry.

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I have seen and heard tell of people making puppets out of unusual items. But I have neither seen nor heard tell of anyone recognizing quite as Brehm does that the totality of the stage phenomenon is a puppet, that every instant and dram of the stage’s innards is a puppet.

Daniel Maidman, Huff Post

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The Eye Which We Do Not Have is an eerie, yet powerful psychological tale about suppressed female desire told with puppetry and performing scenery. Dark and cinematic, The Eye is a piece of live theater accompanied by an original symphonic and emotional score.

A victorian woman (a bunraku-style and table top puppet) has a forbidden sexual encounter, which she obsesses over and dreams about as she sits in the house she has made for herself, surrounded by furniture that feel both comforting and hostile (flat toy theater puppets). She is drawn by her own compulsion to revisit the scene of the crime, across the parlor, up the stairs, and down the hall to her bedroom door. She hallucinates the house shrinking, stretching and swirling around her (scenic puppetry), which prevents her from reaching her desire.