Shadow Puppets, Marionettes and Punch

Shadow Figure from Java

       The orchestra is tuning up. Come on; we must hurry. The play is about to begin. Here on the island of Java, in the East Indies, everybody will be at the shadow play, from grandfather to the baby, although baby will sleep through a good deal of it. Everyone laughs and talks and eats, even while the performance is going on. But that does not bother the dalang, the man who works the shadow figures. He knows that the people are watching, ready to catch him up if he should make the slightest mistake, for they too know sits behind a white sheet and holds up the actors, reciting the lines of each one. A lamp over his head casts the shadow of the figure on the screen, and as each character appears the people hiss the villain or cheer the hero just as we do in the movies.

       These shadow figures are cut out of flat pieces of water-buffalo hide that has been dried and stretched and softened. Thin bamboo sticks are attached to the hands to make the arms work, and a pointed stake, by which the dalang holds the figure, is fastened to the body. He can handle only one,or two figures at a time, and as there are often more than a hundred in the play, he sticks the extra ones, which he is not using at the moment, into a piece of the stem of a banana plant. These Javanese figures are brightly painted and wear gay clothes and headdresses. They have very thin waists and angular arms, and some of them have the longest noses you ever saw.

       The people of Java would much rather watch a shadow play than see real people acting out the very same stories. They love the fat lumpy clowns and the jokes that the dalang makes them say. He must know the long stories by heart, work the figures, recite their lines, and lead the orchestra at the same time. That is quite a job for one man, isn’t it?

       It was long, long ago in China that shadow figures were invented. Nowadays, in the big cities of China, everybody goes to the movies, but in the country towns the shadow plays are still given. The actors are cut out of dried donkey-skins and are gaily painted. They are so transparent that the shadows they cast on the screen are softly colored. In the cities only a few Very old men still know how to handle the little figures, and soon there will be no one left to present the shadow plays.

       Shadow figures are such fun to make. Try it some time. You cut the actors in profile out of cardboard. Then you join the arms to the body with bent pins. You will have to fasten a stick to the body so that you can have something to hold it with. All you need is an electric light and a sheet and you can give a grand entertainment for your family and friends. 

Color these Punch & Judy puppets.

       In America we are more familiar with puppets, or marionettes, as they are sometimes called. The best-known kind hangs from strings fastened to a wooden crossbar. Separate strings are attached to the hands and feet and head, and you have to be very careful that you do not mix up your strings and make your actor do a high kick when he is supposed to be bowing low to his lady. There is another kind, used in Java and China, which, like the shadow figures, is attached to a stick. Also there is the type which fits on your hand so that your middle finger moves the head, and two other fingers act as arms.

       If you were living in France, you could wander in the park any day and see a man with puppets acting out the story of “Polichinelle.” Around him there are always crowds of children who never get tired of seeing the same story over and over again. The Italians call this well-known puppet “Puncinello” or “Pulcinello,” and the English call him “Punch.” Punch, with his beak of a nose and hunch back and high squeaky voice, throws the baby out of the window, quarrels with his wife, Judy, and boasts about how wonderful he is. Toby, the dog, with a frilly ruff around his neck, adds his barking to the general commotion, much to the delight of the English children. And so, you see, all over the world, children and grown-ups, too, love make- believe actors.  Hambleton

Watch a master puppet craftsman. 

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