| Britain celebrates 350 years of anarchic puppet show
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 LONDON:
Dozens of puppeteers gathered in London on Sunday to celebrate 350
years of the Punch and Judy show, an anarchic English seaside
entertainment known for its slapstick and casual violence.
On
the second of two days of festivities, Punch and Judy men and women --
known as "professors" -- took their hand puppets on a procession in
London's Covent Garden, staged shows for hundreds of children and held a
church service with the red-nosed Mr Punch in the pulpit.
"Punch
and Judy pokes fun at all the establishment, but it's got a lot of
heart," said Maggie Pinhorn, organiser of Sunday's events, which
commemorate the first recorded mention of Punch and Judy by diarist
Samuel Pepys.
The show, performed by a single puppeteer in a
striped booth, features the outrageous Mr Punch, who initially appears
happy with his wife Judy and their baby before things go downhill when
he is asked to babysit.
He fails terribly, sometimes even feeding
the baby into a sausage machine, before getting into a fight with his
returning wife, then a policeman, plus usually a crocodile and a ghost.
Punch
fights off his opponents -- who can also include a devil, a doctor and a
hangman -- using a stick, the original "slapstick", in a story
descended from the Italian Commedia dell'Arte and its long-nosed
character Pulcinella.
Children screamed with delight Sunday as
they watched a series of shows in different booths dotted around the
central London venue, each with its own special features, including
French, Japanese, US and Australian versions.
Puppeteers insert a
"swazzle", or two pieces of metal bound with fabric, into the roof of
their mouths to produce the show's trademark squeaky voices.
"It's
pantomime, it's a live cartoon," said Katey Wilde, 40, who performs in
the seaside town of Brighton as Professor Peanut, having learned the art
from her father when she was 17.
She mainly performs in schools,
where about half of the children have never heard of Punch and Judy
before, she said -- "but the reaction is always the same -- they love
it. They can shout at the characters, they can change allegiances, they
love it."
Punch and Judy's popularity waned in the 1980s and 1990s
as critics objected to what they saw as a ruthless portrayal of
domestic violence, but Wilde said Punch had "weathered the storm". (AFP) |
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