Puppet, inanimate figure controlled by human agency, which can be larger than life or only a few inches high. It is probably as old as the theatre itself, and it is possible that many of the wonder-working idols of pagan times were in effect immense puppets controlled by their officiating priests; but in its modern sense a puppet is a semblance of a creature—man, bird, beast, fish—given movement and the appearance of life by direct human assistance.
There are several different kinds of puppet, among them the hand- or glove-puppet, the rod-puppet, the marionette, all of which are rounded figures, and the flat puppets of the
shadow-show and the
toy theatre. Because of the popularity of the
Punch and Judy show the hand-puppet is the best known in England. The successful hand-puppet play—or
motion, as it was called in England—concentrates on broad, simple effects, humorous dialogue, and knockabout comedy. Many of the popular national puppet characters are hand-puppets, carried across Europe by wandering showmen. Apart from the English Punch there is the French
Guignol, a generous, bibulous, and witty Lyonnais silk-weaver; the German
Kasperle, a slyly astute peasant; the Russian Petrushka; and the Italian
Pulcinella, the father of them all. There are hand-puppets in China not very dissimilar from the European types; in India, where they were once very common, they survive mainly in Kerala.
An extension of the hand-puppet, still to be found in India, is the rod-puppet, a full-length rounded figure supported and controlled from below. Its movements are comparatively slow and limited, but the control is absolute, and broad gestures of rare beauty with the arms can be obtained. The most famous and beautiful rod-puppets are found in Java. Some striking effects with rod-puppets were achieved in Vienna, where the stage was seen through a convex lens which enlarged the figures, lending them an aura of enchantment and mystery. The simplest from of rod-puppet is the
Fool's marot or bauble, a replica of his own head with its cap and bells, fastened to a stick. The Bread and Puppet Theatre in New York, a radical political protest group founded in the 1960s, used giant puppets manipulated by both internal and external operators with rods sometimes as long as 30 feet; they were effectively used in street theatre.
The most elaborate form of puppet is probably the string puppet or marionette, originally controlled from above by rods or wires running to the centre of the head and to each limb, as in the Sicilian puppets used in productions of
Ariosto's Orlando furioso. Between 1770 and 1870 they were entirely manipulated by strings, thus allowing far more flexibility in limb and head movements. A standard marionette has a string to each leg and arm, two to the head, one to each shoulder (which take the weight of the body), and one to the back—nine strings (actually fine threads) in all. An elaborate figure can have two or three times this number. All the strings are gathered together on a wooden ‘crutch’ or control, held in one hand by the manipulator, while with the other he plucks at whatever strings are required. The figures vary in size from 12 to 18 inches for home use and up to 2 or 3 feet for public performances. The
bunraku puppets of Japan, seen in London in 1968 during the
World Theatre Season, are about two-thirds life-size. They are sometimes strung like marionettes, but more often manipulated by as many as three operators to each figure, working in full view of the audience, and controlling their charges by means of wires and levers in their backs. Indian string puppets, now mostly used for the Tamil ‘dance of the dolls’, are manipulated somewhat differently.
The Italian Fantoccini puppets, who appeared in London at the Restoration, and the Puppet Theatre in the Piazza in Covent Garden between 1710 and 1713, were all marionettes, as were those used by Samuel
Foote for satirical purposes in 1733, and by Charles
Dibdin, who erected a puppet theatre at Exeter in 1775. The fortunes of the marionette then waned, but there was a revival of interest in the early 20th century, fostered by Gordon
Craig with his emphasis on the actor's role as an ‘Über-marionette’. This led to an artistic flowering which bore fruit in the work of such groups as the Hogarth Puppets and John Wright's marionettes at the Little Angel Theatre in Islington. But in spite of the foundation in 1925 of a British Puppet and Model Theatre Guild, puppets in England have a limited appeal and are often thought of only as educational. In the United States, where there was no tradition of puppetry, they were also slow to establish themselves, and still attract only a minority audience. The true home of the puppet-theatre is the Far East and Eastern Europe, where it covers everything from elementary education in backward areas to sophisticated cabaret shows in the big cities.
