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A blog, reflection or arguments on the marionette
Argy-Bargy
argy-bargy [ahr-gee-bahr-gee]
-noun, plural -gies. Chiefly British Slang
1. a lively or disputatious discussion.
2. a verbal dispute; a wrangling argument
Origin:
1595–1605; argle-bargle
Since the objects of imitation are men in action, and these men must be either of a higher
or a lower type (for moral character mainly answers to these divisions, goodness and
badness being the distinguishing marks of moral differences), it follows that we must
represent men either as better than in real life, or as worse, or as they are.
Aristotle
The marionette is a re-incarnation of the character it is depicting rather than an imitation.
As a result, the audience, witnessing a performance without human actors, are drawn
into the drama unaware that they are looking at carvings and not the real animal or human.
This leap of the imagination is not possible in actor’s theatre but is in film or possibly opera and ballet.
Gren Middleton
Puppetry is a form of ecstasy, just as music is. It is caused by an overflow of muscle-power
and brain-activity and by an urgent happiness that can’t be held back, and has to manifest itself.
Peter Schumann
The Puppet Master is a god. He puts his own personality into his whittled blocks of wood:
like puppeteer like puppet is a common fact of observation: he controls their destinies with
a friendly grip on the strings: he is joyous at their success and grief-stricken at their disobedience:
and his own personality is enriched by what he puts into theirs.
Jan Bussell
A man who can express himself through the marionette can mix with the mighty and with
the poor, with the old and with the young.
John Wright
Index
Arguments for a marionette theatre
Notes on despair in the marionette theatre
Reasons to be cheerful in the marionette theatre
On becoming a marionettist by Edward Gordon Craig
The Spirit of the Marionette by John Phillips