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ART LIMES 2012/4. - BÁB-TÁR – ANGOL REZÜMÉK
- Katalin Kopin: DELETTARE ED EDUCARE
The History of the Remsey Marionette Theatre (1934-1953)
The marionette theatre founded by the Remsey family in 1934 represents an outstanding
chapter in the history of artistic puppet theatre in Hungary. The history of the family
puppet theatre was divided into two separate periods by World War II. The first part,
which lasted from 1934 to 1935, was followed by a break of thirteen years. The puppets
deriving from this first period perished during World War II. In 1947, the members of the
Remsey family returned to making puppets and organizing puppet shows in their family
house in Erdő street, Gödöllő. The painter Jenő Remsey and his three sons, Iván, Gábor
and András played a significant role in the second period of the Remsey Marionette
Theatre. Iván Remsey’s wife, Ilma Sipos joined the family company as a new member.
Although its reorganization coincided with the flourishing of the ’popular puppet
movement’ supported and controlled by the state in the 1950s, the marionette theatre was
not born within the framework of this movement. The company succeeded in preserving
its artistic independence and intellectual freedom throughout the years. The amateur
strivings of contemporary puppet theatre were characterized by the compulsory
’actualising tendency’. The company did not accept the idea of involving current political
issues into the programmes and applying puppet shows as a means of political agitation.
The Remsey family followed the traditions of the artistic puppet theatre represented by
Géza Blattner and István Árpád Rév. They chose the motto of the Italian Podrecca puppet
theatre dynasty, ’Delettare ed educare’ (Delight and teach.) as their slogan, which
appeared on their posters as well. Between 1947 and 1953, they carved twenty-five 4590-cm-long puppets from lime. The puppets bear the marks of extraordinary sense of
form and high artistic standard. The Remsey Marionette Theatre came into existence as a
result of the family’s joint artistic effort, since they did everything together, including
designing and making of the artistic puppets, building the marionette stage, painting the
scenery, moving the puppets, dramaturgical and directorial tasks and performing the
puppet show itself. Each family member did his/her best, and played an equal role in the
project. Considering its artistic strivings and spirit, the Remsey Marionette Theatre is
similar to the artistic puppet theatre of the 1920-30s. The Remsey Marionette Theatre
organized performances and operated until 1953, but puppet making and puppet shows
continued playing an important role in the career of the individual family members. The
Remsey Marionette Theatre did not fulfil the expectations set by the cultural policy of the
communist era, but preserved its intellectual independence and artistic freedom. Although
the Remsey family did not make a living from their passion for puppet shows, their
autonomous activity nourished by inner ambitions has become an essential chapter in the
history of the Hungarian puppet theatre.
- Dus Polett : JAVANESE SHADOW THEATRE – WAYANG KULIT
The oldest motivation for shadow theatre is contact with the dead. The land of shadows is the
world beyond the surface, the world of spirits, from where the souls of the deceased, in posession
of divine knowledge and with their experiences gained along the way, rejoin the living. The
magical power of shadows in all of Asia is based on this basic idea. Since the ancient times of
Dhalang, the Javanese wayang kulit player has been the spiritual leader of the community. With
his prayer said before performances, he also indicates that bringing the shadow figures to life is a
magical feat, a powerful act, which can affect the course of life and the development of the soul
and spirit. Wayang is a part of everyday life for Javanese people. The characteristics of Javanese
shadow theatre are summarized in this article. The author became acquainted with them on
location in Java. Upon returning home, she established the first Wayang theatre in Hungary.
- Henryk Jurkowski: HARRY KRAMER AND HIS WORKS IN A CONTEMPORARY
CONTEXT
This study examines artistic endeavors of the 20th century similar to Harry Kramer’s mechanical
theatre and puppet theatre. Kramer was recognized as a kinetic artist, although he was also
involved in other artistic activities. One of his most well known performances was of
“Mechanical Theatre”. After his retirement, he created Artist Necropolis in Habichtswald, a
cemetary near Kassel, Germany. The first mechanical theatres appeared centuries earlier in the
form of automata. This study, however, limits itself to the 20th century. According to it, Italian
futurists were the first to show interest in the material aspects of civilization. They were charmed
by the development of technology and thought it could change a person’s life completely. The
author examines the use of machines and robots in theatre from this point up to artistic
experiments of the recent past.
- Henryk. Jurkowski: BREADBAKING AND MORALITY
The author of this article looks at the most characteristic performances of the Bread and Puppet
Theater (Fire, the Cry of the People for Meat, Our Domestic Resurrection Circus, the Fight
against the End of the World), as well as Peter Schumann’s messages and beliefs. In response to
the opinions of several other authors, such as Francoise Kourilsky, Kazimierz Braun, Blażej
Kusztelski and Stephen Kaplin, as well as Peter Schumann’s statement, he writes: “It is difficult
to accept Schumann’s opinion as a satisfactory explanation for the condition of European theatre.
The proof so close to Schumann’s heart has never exhausted the problems of people in the arts.
There are a number of different possibilities for us to protect humanity and discuss our common
concerns. Schumann’s “spontaneous cry” cannot be the only form of the message.”
- Balogh Géza: THE CRY OF THE PEOPLE FOR MEAT
This article was written in 1969 and is a review of The Cry of the People for Meat, a performance
by the Bread and Puppet Theatre at the Wrocław Festival. The performance marked the first
European guest appearance by Peter Schumann and his ensemble. Schumann is of German
descent, but based in New York and now in Vermont. “The performance is folk theatre, mystery,
liturgical play and nativity mixed with elements of cabaret, circus and drama school; the Bible
combined with the spirit of political newspapers and comics. It is transfigured religious
ceremonies blended with profane clownery. The main attraction of this highly structured and
multi-layered performance is a perfect synthesis that creates new paths for the art of theatre in the
20th century.”
- John Bell: LANDSCAPE AND DESIRE. BREAD AND PUPPET PAGEANTS IN THE
1990s
The author has been associated with the Bread and Puppet Theater since 1973. In this article, he
interprets how the American public understands its identity and its place in the world as
expressed in the Bread and Puppet Theater’s “Our Domestic Resurrection Circus”. Fifty years
later, Peter Schumann premiered “Our Domestic Resurrection Circus” in a field on his Vermont
farm. Bell describes in detail the location of the circus, the field, the giant puppets, the crowd
scenes and the role of the individual characters. At the beginning of the article, he discusses the
American pageant movements, emphasizing the political dimension of the genre. He then
proceeds to analyze the two most significant pageants, Rehearsing with Gods (1993) and A
Domestic Resurrection Circus for Frogs (1994). The work of Bread and Puppet is not merely a
critique of mass culture; it also offers alternatives to the typical capitalistic consumer society of
the second half of the 20th century. He closes with the following sentences: “I think the Bread and
Puppet Pageants are in fact realizations of such federations of moments, experienced collectively,
not only for pleasure, but in order to ‘release their promise of life’ ... The Pageants are tied to
specific events, but also exist for themselves, as shared experiences implying ‘reconstruction of
life’ and ‘the rebuilding of the world’ through paper- maché.”
- Massimo Schuster: 27 YEARS LATER
After 27 years, Massimo Schuster, renowned puppeteer, director and former student of Peter
Schumann, once again visited Vermont, home of the Bread and Puppet Theater. This article both
evokes memories of the early years and relates the author’s impressions of his visit in 2002.
“Twenty-seven years later, I find Bread and Puppet, which I knew and of which I was part,
working with the same aesthetic demands. It is their goal to provide a lifelike display of
journalistic abstractions, which degrade our lives by their statistical contours. I find the theatre in
its superimposed beauty and everyday tragedies the only thing that is worth something, which
speaks to me, as it spoke in other ages of Polynikes, Iocaste, or Rosencrantz and Guildenstern,
with the same voice, the same silence, the same compassion.”
- Tömöry Márta: PETER SCHUMANN’S PUPPET WORKSHOP
Thirteen years after his puppet workshop in Kecskemét in 1997, Peter Schumann once again
visited Hungary, this time giving workshops in Pannonhalma and Győr. The author has recorded
her work with Schumann in the form of a journal, which she summarized thus: The second
encounter with the Master brought deeper, bitter ironical teachings, which were harder to digest.
But the message was just as passionate and heartfelt: resist the demands of the unnatural world;
restore your relationship with the sky.
- Ida Hledíková: POLITICS AND TRADITION
This gives an account of the author’s three meetings with Peter Schumann. In 2011, she attended
a conference in Connecticut where Schumann gave a lecture and where his production, Manning,
was also performed. In 2012, she was able to see Schumann’s shadow play performances, and she
also briefly mentions the photo album of Bread and Puppet’s activities. She closes her account
with these lines: It has never been an easy task to decipher Schumann’s works. It is also not easy
to write about them. Peter Schumann attracts the audience like a magnet. He not only radiates
positive energy to us, but sends us genuine human messages.
- Gimesi Dóra: SLEEPING PRINCESS ON STAGE
If puppetry is to continue as a viable profession, the main priority is that young people have
access to the suitable scientific papers on puppetry design and texts on its performance history.
With its long-planned series, Báb-tár has employed the most outstanding experts in the field to
accomplish this.More than a decade ago, the Budapest University of Theatre and Film Arts began
a degree program for puppeteers. Soon the first class of puppet theatre directors will be
graduating. The university syllabus strives to provide the students with the means to understand
and assimilate puppetry's aesthetic and theoretical problems. The students' dissertations bear
witness to their accomplishments in these areas. Dóra Gimesi is the author of the first article. She
wrote her doctoral thesis on the dramaturgy of the fairy tale. It is a summary of the re-writing of
fairy tales for puppets from a theoretical and practical standpoint. Among the many research subthemes, the problems faced in staging Sleeping Beauty as a puppet play and several ensuing
performances are discussed and analyzed.
- Miglinczi Éva: THE FIRST CIRCLE OF NOTHING
The author discusses the adaptation for puppet theatre of Janne Teller’s novel, which took the
world by storm. The book by the young Danish writer is thought-provoking and awe-inspiring in
how it presents the difficult period of adolescence. We catch a glimpse of the critical stages in the
lives of a class full of pre-teenagers, and we see them become adults before our eyes, leaving
behind their innocent years as children. The book presents the reader with the merciless
transitions of puberty, which are in effect the labor pains of a second birth. The puppet stage
adaptation offers the essence of the book’s plot, but unlike the original, the students are presented
as different personality types. The cruel ending confronts the audience with the fact that
destruction retains aspects of love and friendship. The purity of childhood has disappeared; for
each character, the only question of what life is like in its absence remains.
- Zdeněk A. Tichý: THE RELAY RACE OF GENERATIONS OF CZECH PUPPETEERS
(AND OTHERS)
Even just taking a brief glimpse at the program for the 29th Skupova Pilsen Festival of Czech
Professional Puppet and Alternative Theatre gives an idea of the high quality and diversity of the
event: somersaults under the circus big top, a man-eating shark, the massacre of stuffed toys,
Hamlet in a Boy Scout uniform, five versions of the Grimm Brothers’ Little Red Riding Hood.
This all promises enormous variety. Many extraordinary original works and adaptations were
presented, and a large number of authors were also present. Humor, irony, lyricism and drama
were all represented in productions encompassing the historical past, the present and the future, in
a wide range of forms (circus, sci-fi, verse plays, horror). We Hungarians also found Standing at
the Canon (U kanónu stál) particularly engaging. And we appreciated the irony of the
performance, even if we couldn’t escape feeling felt a pang of resentment at aspects of the history
involved.
- Nánay István: LISTEN TO ME, LITTLE PALS!
The biography of Henrik Kemény is a collection of interviews conducted beginning in April 2004
and lasting over 6 ½ years. The interviewer, Terka Láposi, is the director of the Korngut-Kemény
Foundation, the curator of the Kemény estate and was also a member of the Vojtina Puppet
Theatre. She wrote the Prologue, which gives a concise summary of the characteristics of this
genre and describes the traveling puppeteers who performed at fairs and markets. She has also
provided a detailed biography, family tree and list of awards and diplomas, as well as the
bountiful selection of photographs. Hemrik Kemény was able to proofread the book, but
unfortunately did not live to see its publication. We can only hope that further volumes will soon
appear in order to immortalize this great artist’s work.
- Csurgai Zsófia: SCIENTIFIC DELICACY
Puppet theatre enthusiasts will be excited about an interesting scientific publication which
appeared last year. Puppets and Automata is, however, not a puppet theatre theory, but rather a
“puppet-theatre-theory”. This is a collection of essays which gives a taste of philosophy, literature
theory, history of theatre and painting, in an attempt to make the topics between the various
artistic disciplines disappear. The volume is divided into two main chapters: History and
Theatricality, and Puppets and Automata. Among other things, the author highlights whereby
theatrical experiments migrate to puppet theatre and presentations using inanimate structures. She
also examines individual artistic endeavors and their relation to cultural hist.
- Balogh Géza: UNCONVENTIONAL (PUPPET) THEATRE HISTORY
This article is an introduction to Henryk Jurkowski’s Material as the Carrier of the Essence of
Ritual. The author’s newest book calls on anthrophology to help redefine the history of theatre
generally and the history of puppetry specifically. He views two books by Edward Burnett Taylor
as the point of departure for his current undertaking. These two books are Primitive Culture,
published in 1871, and Anthropology, written ten years later. “His research didn’t merely let him
discover new areas, but also defined the method by which we can experiment with interpreting
the history of culture, taking evolution into account.” For the author, puppet theatre, or more
precisely the phenomenon of the puppet or stage figure, is only a practical starting point, which
provides the broad perspective necessary to re-approach the history of theatre in general. As the
title suggests, material is the focus of the investigation. Jurkowski is interested in how the
materialistic world is reflected in rituals and in the theatre types arising from these rituals. A more
exact approach: A fetish is an object of cult respect for members of communal society and
primitive peoples. The members of communal societies have bestowed miraculous powers upon
the fetish object and believe the object is capable of influencing their fate. However, certain
features of the fetish continue to live on in religious relics (crucifix, altar, sacred images), in the
modern era. And these features are present in theatrical customs, community games and theatre
rituals. The reviewer reminds us of one of Jurkowski’s older “traditional” books, A History of
European Puppetry, which highlighted the turning points in European puppetry from antiquity to
the mid-20th century. “We can barely believe that his present work renounces his early chronicle
(All the more so because he is currently working on revising and supplementing this latest book).
His classical history of puppetry and this current impressive work coexist alongside each other
peacefully. Both are ageless and are the passion of an ever-restless spirit brought to life. Each is a
declaration of love. And the object of the author’s love is in both cases the (puppet) theatre.”
- Balogh Géza: FAREWELL TO A SERENE ARTIST
This article commemorates the great puppeteer, Hugo Gruber (1938-2012), who died a few
months ago. He began his career as an amateur puppeteer and became a member of the State
Puppet Theatre in 1961. He was a respected member of the ensemble of the theatre on Andrássy
út for the past fifty years and his name is a part of the history of Hungarian puppetry. He played
the son of Rama in the Ramayana, Alonso in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, the puppeteer in
Stravinsky’s Petrushka, the devil in A Soldier’s Tale, the leader of the thieves in Ali Baba and the
40 Thieves and Akela in The Jungle Book. Beginning in the 1970s, he worked in the field of
synchronization and left behind many memorable performances in this area, too. He was awarded
the Jászai Mari Award, the premier distinction for national dramatic artists.