Dead puppet society
Oct. 19th, 2007 12:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidAwash in the ocean, blown away in parts, cancer after cryogenics, domestic abuse, eaten by monsters, flood, hunted like deer, lost in space, overinflated, punched, run off a staircase cliff, stomped on, sucked by close-up butterfly, and so on, plus a healthy dose of unbridled naked puppet lust.... Famous Puppet Death Scenes is a sort of an abecedarium (or Gashlycrumb Tinies?) of puppet death. It is hosted by Nathanial Tweak, and put on by the Old Trout Puppet Workshop at the ICA.
Nathanial Tweak presents the greatest death scenes in puppet theatre history.
Please endeavor to care as much as possible.
The scenes:
The Feverish Heart by Nordo Frot: Act 1, Scene 3
Das Bipsy und Mumu Puppenspiel by Freulicher Friedrich: Episode 43 "Bipsy's Mistake"
The Ballad of Edward Grue by Samuel Groanswallow: Act 4, Scene 6
The Modern Age (Part 3) by Eamon Schloss: "The Staircase Scene"
The Forgotten Dish by Sterling Lowry: "The Winds of Fate"
The Swede of Donnylargan by Sir Walter Pill
My Stupid Dad by Sally: Act 1, Scene 1
A Desperate Attempt by Sarah Phweet: Act 3, Scene 4
The Feverish Heart by Nordo Frot: Act 2, Scene 6
La Nature au Naturel avec Dr. Francois LeBoule: Episode 12
The Cruel Sea by Thorvik Skarsbarg: Hour 14
Never Say It Again by Linda Snuck
The Beast of Muggditch Lane by August Stainbrook: Act 1, Scene 1
The Feverish Heart by Nordo Frot: Act 4, Scene 14
Funeral Ritual of the Sugawara Denju
The Last Whale by Grover Bailiwick
How the Spirit Entered Me by the Reverend George Foote
The Feverish Heart by Nordo Frot: Act 19, Scene 78
Ice Age starring Swan Roderick
Lucille Arabesque by Agathon Finley
King Jeff the Magnificent by William Dingo
The Perfect Death Scene by Nathanial Tweak
And Nathanial's comments between these carefully selected scenes waxed philosophical, as well.
This was a wonderful, multi-layered entertainment, stories within stories, frames within frames, and a huge variety of puppet styles, including some half-person sized wearable ones. Three stages plus the space in front, projected titles (and subtitles, for the scenes from the silents), appropriately scratchy music at times, and very thoughtful lighting design. Huzzah for talented bearded puppeteers in black suits!
There are three more shows in Boston, today and tomorrow, before they go to the next stop on their tour.
We walked from South Station, finding a lovely route along the water that first took us past an installation called "Walking on Water," which were huge plastic bubbles floating in the lock, each one with a red person inside. In the night lights it was particularly interesting.
The next block along the water was by the Children's Museum. I hadn't been there since they renovated and expanded, and it's much different, the front of the building pushed out, in a blocky sort of way with lots of glass (I could see a very cool multilevel climbing thing inside). There's also a nice park and path, with views of the city. One eerie note was how one of the downtown skyscrapers had lots of bright, but indirect, lights at the top. In the light mistiness, I kept thinking it was an effect from an sf movie, that the aliens were going to land there.
This was also my first time at the ICA. I didn't get to see much of the inside besides the theater and the mural at the entry (which is gorgeous), though I noted that the gift shop follows Mom's Rule of Good Museum Shops: ability to shop without paying a museum entrance fee.
After the show, though, there was time to explore outside the building, and I was very much impressed. There's great views over the water west to the city and north over the bay. Plus there's a whole outdoor amphitheater space that overlooks the water as well, that's under a huge overhang (read: sheltered enough that the only weather concern would be temperature). I hope I make it to something there.
Nathanial Tweak presents the greatest death scenes in puppet theatre history.
Please endeavor to care as much as possible.
The scenes:
The Feverish Heart by Nordo Frot: Act 1, Scene 3
Das Bipsy und Mumu Puppenspiel by Freulicher Friedrich: Episode 43 "Bipsy's Mistake"
The Ballad of Edward Grue by Samuel Groanswallow: Act 4, Scene 6
The Modern Age (Part 3) by Eamon Schloss: "The Staircase Scene"
The Forgotten Dish by Sterling Lowry: "The Winds of Fate"
The Swede of Donnylargan by Sir Walter Pill
My Stupid Dad by Sally: Act 1, Scene 1
A Desperate Attempt by Sarah Phweet: Act 3, Scene 4
The Feverish Heart by Nordo Frot: Act 2, Scene 6
La Nature au Naturel avec Dr. Francois LeBoule: Episode 12
The Cruel Sea by Thorvik Skarsbarg: Hour 14
Never Say It Again by Linda Snuck
The Beast of Muggditch Lane by August Stainbrook: Act 1, Scene 1
The Feverish Heart by Nordo Frot: Act 4, Scene 14
Funeral Ritual of the Sugawara Denju
The Last Whale by Grover Bailiwick
How the Spirit Entered Me by the Reverend George Foote
The Feverish Heart by Nordo Frot: Act 19, Scene 78
Ice Age starring Swan Roderick
Lucille Arabesque by Agathon Finley
King Jeff the Magnificent by William Dingo
The Perfect Death Scene by Nathanial Tweak
These death scenes are taken from the greatest puppet shows in history - not merely the most famous, or the most popular in their time (for indeed true art is often far ahead of its own era) - but indeed the greatest, according to the judgment of one who has dedicated his entire life to the art of the puppet death scene: myself. My credentials in this regard are simply the choices I have made: judge for yourselves whether I have chosen rightly.
The scenes have been re-created as faithfully as possible to the originals. In many cases, of course, there is no published script to work from; instead I have had to rely on folk-memory, second-and third-hand accounts, traditional Italian field-hollers, court records, and in some cases my own surmises. Nevertheless, I believe they closely approximate the original works. Of course, a puppet show is not an immutable thing; it changes with every audience, and these scenes were intended for very different audiences in very different places and times. To that extent, they must be viewed with a certain philosophical imagination.
I have gone to considerable effort to assemble the original puppets; some had been lost for many years, and many had long ago considered themselves retired from public life. Nevertheless, I scoured the world. For years I plundered mouldering crates, shadowed attics and ship bilges, trudged through craggy bleakness and jungle swelter, interviewed crazed witnesses, followed hastily scribbled maps, battled competitors, and spent a fortune thrice over, to pluck these noble ancients from the dried fingers of their grizzled makers, to summon them to the stage once more for you.
Allow me to anticipate some potential criticism. There are those who hold 'Dungbeetle's Lament' by Thingwald Singh as the apotheosis of the art of the puppet death scene, for example. I excite controversy no doubt in saying that it is shallow and manipulative, and deserves no place in the eternal canon. Some scenes, I admit, were impossible to reproduce - surely the climactic finale of Dusseldorf's 'Colossal Jesus' should take its place here amongst the hallowed, but the theatre is only so large and the practice of human sacrifice has largely gone out of fashion. If anybody has any clues as to the whereabouts of Schnebel and Jorge, the beloved puppets of Jan Schnink, please let me know. .I would dearly love to include 'The Last Days of Don Santiago' in future productions, but I have been unable to track down their whereabouts. Schnink himself has been of no assistance, due to his current circumstances, which need no elaboration in these pages.
And Nathanial's comments between these carefully selected scenes waxed philosophical, as well.
This was a wonderful, multi-layered entertainment, stories within stories, frames within frames, and a huge variety of puppet styles, including some half-person sized wearable ones. Three stages plus the space in front, projected titles (and subtitles, for the scenes from the silents), appropriately scratchy music at times, and very thoughtful lighting design. Huzzah for talented bearded puppeteers in black suits!
There are three more shows in Boston, today and tomorrow, before they go to the next stop on their tour.
We walked from South Station, finding a lovely route along the water that first took us past an installation called "Walking on Water," which were huge plastic bubbles floating in the lock, each one with a red person inside. In the night lights it was particularly interesting.
The next block along the water was by the Children's Museum. I hadn't been there since they renovated and expanded, and it's much different, the front of the building pushed out, in a blocky sort of way with lots of glass (I could see a very cool multilevel climbing thing inside). There's also a nice park and path, with views of the city. One eerie note was how one of the downtown skyscrapers had lots of bright, but indirect, lights at the top. In the light mistiness, I kept thinking it was an effect from an sf movie, that the aliens were going to land there.
This was also my first time at the ICA. I didn't get to see much of the inside besides the theater and the mural at the entry (which is gorgeous), though I noted that the gift shop follows Mom's Rule of Good Museum Shops: ability to shop without paying a museum entrance fee.
After the show, though, there was time to explore outside the building, and I was very much impressed. There's great views over the water west to the city and north over the bay. Plus there's a whole outdoor amphitheater space that overlooks the water as well, that's under a huge overhang (read: sheltered enough that the only weather concern would be temperature). I hope I make it to something there.