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Famous Puppet Death Scenes
Famous Puppet Death Scenes
Assembly Roxy, until August 28
by Gareth K Vile
It is unsurprising that Famous Puppet Death Scenes has become a favourite at the Edinburgh Fringe. Not only are the puppets exquisitely made, it has a fast pace, offering plenty of comic endings within its old school puppet theatre (and beyond), and aims for laughter rather than poignancy. It is an exemplum of how puppetry can be used in an adult entertainment (without any of the excess or exploitation that might imply) within the context of a culture which regards puppetry as a treasured childhood memory or a novelty medium.
The Old Trunk Company take advantage of the many forms of puppetry: hand sized puppets on a stage, bunraku style, rod-controlled marionettes and even a death puppet worn by a performer. Each scene is brief, establishing the character before depicting their demise. Yet as the show progresses, certain characters return, variously attempting to avoid their sad fate or crashing into another scenario.
The puppet is comic, a way to parade fatalities without pathos: the darkness of the humour, and the complicity of the audience, is hidden by the innocence and charm of the puppet. Although the characters are established quickly – another advantage of the puppet, which has a visual vocabulary that can express identity through symbolic appearance or gesture – they have little depth, which, again, leans away from tragedy
The title of the show does summarise the experience, and while the later scenes add a meta-theatrical sophisticating, playing on previous scenes and cracking the strict division between the scenarios, the production doesn’t expand on the basic premise. It is a showcase for the company’s skill, and emblematic of how puppetry at the Fringe can attract audiences, allowing dark matter to take on a friendly appearance: simultaneously playing against and into the audience’s expectations.
Four stars.
