Friday, May 30, 2008

Gods and Puppets

Gordon Craig argued that puppets are "descendants of a great and noble family of images, images which were made in the likeness of God." You can see something of what he means in this video: the amplified illusion, with all the torturous labour to perform it crudely visible, is so much more powerful than any more realistic enactment possibly could be. The awe it evokes is similar to that elicited by images of gods, which, although we know them to be human creations, call our dormant imaginations into play in ways that, breaking free of banality, seem superhuman.

2 comments:

Shauna Dobbie said...

Wow! Craig, that is beautiful. Strangely touching.
Where is it from? England? Who did it?

Craig Walker said...

It's a street theatre company called Royal De Luxe, which is based in France. This video was made in London, but I think the show was originally performed in Nantes.