![]() Traditional Balinese culture features a candle-lit form of shadow puppets called Wayang kulit. This was Queen Victoria’s summer residence and down on the bathing beach they put on very traditional Punch & Judy shows for visitors. Crowd interaction is an important part of the experience so don’t hesitate to yell at the characters.Īnother brilliant place to see a traditional Punch & Judy show is at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. Punch and Judy shows aren’t as common as they once were in the UK but the annual Covent Garden May Fayre and Puppet Festival in London guarantees laughs. Despite being associated with British culture its origins are in 16th-century Italian commedia dell’arte, in particular the Neapolitan character of Pulcinella. The darkly comic world of the stick-wielding Punch and his wife Judy, along with a cast of eccentric characters, has been entertaining children and adults since 1662 in Britain. Shows are in Italian but it is easy to understand what is going on. The fight scenes are particularly entertaining. The Piccolo Teatro dei Pupi is an amusing way to spend an evening in Ortigia, whether or not you have children in tow. You can see Sicilian puppet artistry in Palermo and also in the beautiful town of Ortigia, which is part of Syracuse. The stories are interpretations of romantic poems form the early Middle Ages. It originated in the 13th century and featuers elaborate painted sets and large, beautifully dressed (and armed) puppets. The Opera of the Puppets, or Opera dei Pupi, is the Sicilian form of marionette puppet theatre, which has been designated a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage form. You can see similarly exquisite puppets from hundreds of years ago in the National Museum in Yangon. The puppets are colourfully-dressed and up to a metre high. ![]() The British colonial era saw this wonderful tradition almost die out but there are still a few families keeping the flame alive.Īung’s Puppet Show in Nyaung Shwe (the main village at Inle Lake) is one such company, where Aung is carrying on the skills and traditions of his family. Favourite tales involve royal court intrigue and moral instruction. Marionette theatre or yok-thai pwe enjoyed an important place in Myanmar’s performing arts tradition in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Thăng Long water puppet theatre in Hanoi is a lovely place to visit. It brings to mind the flooded rice fields of Vietnam. Lacquered wooden puppets dance above the water of a pool with the puppeteers controlling them from behind a screen. Water puppetry goes back to the 11th century in northern Vietnam and has evolved into a unique form of the puppetry arts in Asia. Of course they are particularly famous for The Sound of Music! You can see puppets and sets from the theatre at the Marionette Museum up at the Hohenzollern Fortress in Salzburg. The Salzburg Marionette Theatre offers a wonderful mix of child-like fairytale with a proper (grown-up) theatre experience. The theatre has been inscribed on the Unesco world heritage list and it has 100 years of incredible tradition.
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