What
is your association with the word „puppets”? Are you in that huge
group of people who connect the word with children rather than with
adults? Well, thanks to “the Muppet Show” that group is smaller.
I hope that if you are in that group you'll change your mind after
reading the article, and if you're not you'll have fun reading it.
Muppets
introduction :)
Maybe
you don't consider muppets to be a good example of a show „for
adults” because the puppets are so colorful and funny, but most of
topics which are brought up in the show are connected with politics
or culture. There are shows strictly about politics. A great example
of such a show is „Splitting image” - a show created in UK :
Such
satirical shows arouse from the tradition of comedy dell'arte. A
different kind of performances with the use of puppets are closer to
theater rather than to TV shows. Puppets can be also dramatic or
poetic, not only satiric and funny.
An
amazing puppet created for theatre performance:
In
Warsaw there are three puppets theaters, but only sometimes you can
see a play for adults there. A play which is really fantastic and
worth seeing is“ the death , the goose and a rose” in Baj
Theatre. That play is for adults and for children. There's also a big
event for puppet-lovers in Warsaw. Once a year you can go to a
festival called “Puppet is a human being too”. Here's a link to
the last year's performances schedule - as you can see a lot of them
are in English because the artists come from all over the world. Some
of the performances shown during that festival are for adults only:
Nina
Conti ending:
Questions:
Do
you think that puppets have future, or that the technique will
disappear?
Have
you ever seen a puppeteer live, would you like to?
Do
you find puppets creepy, funny or poetic- why?
Sources:
Comments
I remember seeing a puppeteer live, but that was when I was a kid, and those were the typical kid shows. Haven't ever been to any for adults.
I think it can be funny and creative, as long as the artist is good at making it this way - after all no matter what's the form of expression - it's what you want to express - if it's good enough, you can do that in many different ways, including puppets.
I think, the every single puppet have they own “character” and “soul”, while the abilities of artist/actor are helping in to show it. Sometimes puppets are happy and cheers us up and at the other times they can really scare us. They are expression of emotions and poetry too, as is in the case of Japanese Nō theater.
I hope this kind of art will never disappear and will be always cultivated.
Puppets are relics of the past and they represent a nostalgia for people above some age. I loved Muppet Show because they produced a lot of value of viewers.
Have you ever seen a puppeteer live, would you like to?
I haven't seen them in my entire life. Would I like to? Rather not. I like to have my nostalgic things only in my memory or on big screen.
Do you find puppets creepy, funny or poetic- why?
I find them funny. Even though Jim Henson created lots of them and some of them are creepy in modern terms :)
I have been in puppets theater many times, but never in Warsaw. Most shows I have seen were for children, but there were a few dramas as well. For me it’s great pleasure to watch it. However puppets TV shows are usually not attractive for me.
Just think about how much fun you could get from adding muppet to your show.
If you cannot see how much fum can it be, here are some examples ;)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0vZnwtvgLw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL357BrwK7c