Puppets, after decades of oblivion in the wilderness of children's entertainment, are making a comeback. The return to the artistic mainstream has been taking place gradually, and over the next two weeks (until July 23) will be given a boost in Taiwan by the 2006 Guling International Little Theater Festival (2006年國際小劇場藝術節), which this year has focused on puppetry as its theme.
Curatored by Tu Hsih-hue (杜思慧), this year's festival has been titled Human & Puppet Carnavio (人偶嘉年華會), and is about a million miles from Punch and Judy. The Guling Street Theater (牯嶺街小劇場) is well known among the followers of non-mainstream theater for playing host to some of Taiwan's most experimental theatrical performances. The current show is no exception, and the international line-up of Chris Green and Dan Hurlin from the US, Cathey Seago from the UK and Florian Feisel from Germany, along with two local groups, The Puppet and Its Double (無獨有偶劇團) and Theatre de la Sardin (沙丁龐客劇團), promise to showcase the diversity of modern, serious puppetry.
Tu points out that the festival is taking a very broad definition of what constitutes puppetry, most notably in the case of Cathey Seago, whose How we know we are here, in which a dancer interacts not with an actual puppet, but with multimedia projections.
"It is about an interaction between a subject and an object," said Tu in a telephone interview Monday. "Normally we think about the idea of manipulation, especially between people, in political terms, and in this situation it is distasteful, but with puppetry, this relationship is changed."
Tu, who has a background in performance arts and directing, said that this was her first experience working closely with puppets. "It gave me a new perspective on the idea of manipulation," she said. "When working with puppets, you must be humble, for often the puppet is the master. A regular theater prop simply serves the performer, but here [the performances that make up the festival], the performer serves the object. This allows for the exploration of new kinds of relationships."
Another aspect of puppetry that appeals to Tu is the fact that puppet performances bring together many aspects of theater. "It involves making the puppet, choreography, dance, theater, people and objects," Tu said. And the small space of the Guling Street Theater is ideal for such performances, where much of the artistry is in the detail. It is no surprise therefore, that with such rich offerings, tickets for the various shows are selling fast.
More details about the Human & Puppet Carnavio can be found at www.glt.org.tw/art or call (02) 2391-9393. Performances at the Guling Street Theater located at 2, Ln 5, Guling Street, Taipei (台北市牯嶺街5巷2號). Tickets are available through NTCH ticketing and cost NT$350. Chris Green kicks off the festival tonight with Tin Lightening tonight and tomorrow at 7:30pm and tomorrow and Sunday at 2:30pm.
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