(Photos courtesy of Lorenzo Mella)

In honor of Boom Arts’ upcoming performance of  CHIFLÓN: EL SILENCIO DEL CARBÓN (The Silence of Coal), created and performed by the Chilean group Silence Blanco, I thought I’d look at some puppet performance. (http://www.boomarts.org for details) The performances of this play about the fate of coal miners are free, by the way, but you need to make reservations. Promises to be a thought-provoking engagement, as always with this company.

Man, times have changed since I saw the traditional Kasperle Theater as it is called in Germany or Punch and Judy shows, the British version. Hand puppets are still around, as are marionettes and shadow figures, but things have become quite sophisticated.  

I am linking to some Australian shadow puppet performance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And for my next excursion:

watch the story below (Adults only!) if you have time and inclination for a real  20 minute break;  it uses animation of clay puppets in a different fashion, and is sly and funny about a train ride. As the blurb says: Jungian thriller? Hitchcockian suspense ? Artistic tour de force ? All aboard, the night train is waiting…

Further, there is much pleasure to find in Basil Twist’s version of La bella dormente nel Bosco, an opera in three acts by Ottorino Respighi. It basically tells the story of sleeping beauty and in it he still uses puppets as actors.

Twist is a master, third generation puppeteer who is now pursuing even more complex and inventive forms of story telling. Fabric, light, moving parts have taken on the role of story teller in the link below and it all matches Stravinsky’s music perfectly. This was a true art performance, if I had to choose between them all.