The ERC PuppetPlays project : contribution for a non-linear history of the European theatre
Résumé
This article is a presentation of the ERC Advanced Grant project
PuppetPlays - Reappraising Western European Repertoires for Puppet and
Marionette Theatre (GA 835193). After a short overview of the project
itself, it begins with a definition of puppetry, based on the
phenomenon of double vision. Then it explains the choice of the
corpus limitations, describes the variety of the available resources,
and underlines the great discrepancy in the amount of material
available in the different countries.
The article continues with a brief overview of the role played by
puppetry in the wider frame of performing arts: how much can we
consider that puppeteers developed specific repertoires? What kind of
differences can be observed between puppet or marionette theatre
and actors’ theatre? The answers to these questions differ in a
considerable way according to the cultural and sociological contexts:
sometimes puppet and marionette theatre were the only forms of
performance allowed, and they acted as substitutes for actors theatre;
but sometimes also - and this is increasingly the case since the end of
the 19th century - these instruments were chosen for their specific
expressive qualities.
In a last movement, I emphasize that collecting and analyzing puppet
and marionette repertoires brings us to reconsider the general
historiography of theatre: firstly, because we bring into the light
theatrical genres that have been neglected by the historians; and
secondly, because the plays written by the puppeteers, when we look
closely at them, reveal a stratification of different layers that can be
considered as a kind of heterochrony ; an alternative construction to
social time. The forgotten patrimony of puppet and marionette
dramaturgy conceals therefore many possibilities for research in
humanities and social sciences.
Domaines
Art et histoire de l'artOrigine | Fichiers éditeurs autorisés sur une archive ouverte |
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