Punch and Judy
Punch and Judy 's (English) is a very well-known in England, traditional, the German puppet theater resembling, mostly with hand puppets played puppet theater . It is often associated with traditional English seaside culture . The main characters are Mr. Punch and his wife Judy . The performance consists of a series of short scenes depicting the interplay between two characters, typically the violent punch and another figure.
There are comparable figures in many countries: Kasper in Germany, Guignol in France, Jan Klaassen in the Netherlands, Mester Jakel in Denmark, Pulcinella in Italy, Fasulis in Greece, Petrushka (speaking through a pipe) in Russia and Vasilache in Romania.
The theater is usually performed by a single puppeteer who hides behind the scenery in the portable puppet booth . This is since Victorian times as "Professor" or "Punchman" and is sometimes accompanied by a "Bottler" (of English bottle "bottle"), the fencing, the audience in front of the booth, introducing the idea and collect the money (for B. with a bottle). The bottler can also play accompanying music or sound effects, consult with the puppets and sometimes repeat text that was difficult for the audience to understand.
In the past, the drum and pan flute were the instruments of choice, today the audience is also included when it comes to e.g. B. is to warn the puppet figures of danger approaching behind their backs.
Harrison Birtwistle's opera Punch and Judy (1967) premiered at the Aldeburgh Festival in England in 1968.
The music group Marillion released the song Punch and Judy on their 1984 album Fugazi .
literature
- Rodney P. Carlisle: Encyclopedia of Play in Today's Society, Volume 2, SAGE, 2009, pp. 4584-4585
