Terminology: Puppets, marionettes and other forms

Puppetry is also known as poppespel in Afrikaans.

In South Africa, the term “puppetry” is often loosely incorporated into the broader genre of “visual performance”. The genre offers a multidisciplinary entry point to contemporary performance and its many branches such as performance art, movement, theatre, multimedia, mask, video, puppetry, stage design and visual art, amongst others. This entry point allows the positioning of these genres in relation to each other, as well as a multidisciplinary visuality, as the central concern of the artistic work of puppetry.

Puppet Theatre in South Africa

South Africa has a long and rich puppetry history. Puppetry was present in traditional cultures but introduced as a form of entertainment, mainly for children, during the colonial era. It is now a thriving contemporary art form. Puppetry is widely used to entertain and educate children and adults. It is used in theatre and television, in artistic work, in therapy and in commercial production. South Africa is host to the largest international puppetry and visual performance festival on the continent, Out The Box.

Origins of puppetry in South Africa

Research suggests that there may have been a truly indigenous puppetry tradition in pre-colonial South Africa in Gauteng, Mpumalanga and the Karoo. However, a few puppets in mainly private collections are the only remains of it and the puppet theatre of today is mainly a product of the colonial cultural hegemony.

Colonial puppetry in South Africa

Throughout the 19th century, the Cape Colony was visited periodically by travelling groups of puppeteers from Europe. The oldest documented puppet show was given on 12 August 1800 in Cape Town by a French amateur group with shadow puppets.

From 1837 puppeteers from Italy, England, France and Germany performed at the Cape, often with marionettes.

Among the companies active in the 19th century are:

Penn's Marionettes, a company that apparently performed on 15 May 1863 as part of a "Faney Fair" in celebration of the marriage of the Prince of Wales, and later in June put on a performance for a "select audience" in a schoolroom in Caledon Street.

South African puppetry in the 20th century

Emergence of local puppet theatre

One of the pioneers was Estelle van der Merwe who, working in Parys in the Orange Free State from 1931, developed a series of plays for her wooden puppets based on the stories of Honiball, the Afrikaans writer.

In the 1940s, the art form received a significant boost when sculptors, like Frieda Ollemans, and set designers, like John Dronafield, became involved with a group of puppeteers based in Cape Town, led by John Wright (1906-1991).

In Johannesburg the Canadian puppeteer, Marion Beache, established the Canames Marionettes in 1941. From 1944 to 1952, they performed under the umbrella of Children’s Theatre Incorporated, with a repertoire of European children’s stories.

The career of Gawie de Wet, South Africa’s first post-colonial professional black puppeteer, began in the 1950s. He grew up on a farm in the Karoo. At an early age, his parents taught him to manipulate traditional figures between his toes. He became one of the first teachers to use puppets as an educational medium. Study in Germany strengthened his technique and confidence, and very gradually he won the support of the educational authorities. When ill health forced him to retire as a teacher in 1982, he became a full-time puppeteer, travelling extensively in the Cape Town region.

During the 1950s and 1960s there was a distinctive growth in the number of puppet companies. Keith Anderson established the Pelham Puppets in 1951 and, in 1961, a professional seasoned marionette theatre, Teatro dei Piccoli. During the 1960s, a number of amateur and semi-professional groups emerged, among them Francesca Bantock in Kroonstad and Graham Firth from Durban, as well as groups from the Cape, Natal and the Free State that were government-funded by the performing arts councils.

With the emergence of companies such as Puppet Space, Cape Puppet Players, The Royal Puppet Company and Spellbound Puppets in the 1960s and 1970s, along with the beginning of broadcast television in 1976, puppetry succeeded in becoming a highly regarded entertainment and art form.

The Puppet People, formed by Jacqueline Domisse and Cathy Dodders in 1991 in Cape Town, are well known for their original African stories using rod and string puppets and masks and their highly theatrical adaptations of Native American, Aboriginal Australian and other world stories.

Other prominent and influential puppeteers and puppet-makers have included Jill Joubert, Janni Younge, Roger Titley, Hansie Visagie, Hilette Stapelberg, Jason Potgieter, Marty Kintu, Tali Cervati, Chuma Sopotela, Gabriel Marchand, Cindy Mkaza and Craig Leo.

Influence of visiting puppet companies

From the mid 1950s to the mid 1970s, a series of visits by companies from abroad left a lasting impact, including:

Hogarth Puppets (1954)

John Wright’s Little Angel Marionette Company (1955 and 1957)

Joseph Contrijn and Louis Contrijn (1960)

the Salzburg Marionette Theatre (in 1968, 1970, 1973)

Philippe Genty (1975).

Johannesburg Civic Marionette Theatre (1968-1986)

In 1968, South Africa gained its first full-time professional marionette company. Housed in the Johannesburg Civic Theatre and founded by Michal Grobbelaar, it provided a platform for the talents of Alida von Maltitz who had studied under John Wright as well as Ann Bailes, later followed by people like Jean Watson and Irene Martin. For almost twenty years, until their closure in 1986, they built up a wide repertoire of plays for children and created casts of beautifully carved figures. Levels of professionalism were advanced by employing experienced directors and recording the voices of well-known actors. In the process, they provided a training ground for many of Johannesburg’s puppet manipulators.

For more information, see Johannesburg Civic Marionette Theatre.

Union Internationale de la Marionnette (UNIMA)

In 1972, Alida von Maltitz founded the Johannesburg branch of the Union Internationale de la Marionnette (UNIMA).

For more information, see Union Internationale de la Marionnette.

Puppets and TV

Television was especially influential in the development of popular characters in children’s entertainment with puppets such as Haas Das, Karel Kraai, Sarel Seemonster and Bennie Boekwurm. By far the most popular were Liewe Heksie and her friends, created by Verna Vels.

Les Subcleve was one of the earliest television producers with Adoons-hulle (Afrikaans), Radio Buza (Zulu) and Marimba (Zulu). The biggest pioneer in this field was Louise Smit, who started producing puppet programmes within the national broadcaster (SABC) and then become an independent producer. Her company, Louise Smit Production Trust, produced well over 3,000 episodes of programmes for children in Afrikaans, English as well as African languages. The most important productions include Haas Das se Nuuskas, Mina Moo and Professor Fossie. This production house took over from the Johannesburg Civic Theatre as a regular employer of puppeteers and puppet makers including Alida von Maltitz, Dawn Leggat, Hansie Visagie and Thea Visagie, Adrian Kohler, and Basil Jones.

In the lead-up to the first democratic elections in South Africa, a number of voter-eductation puppet television shows were produced, including Puppet Election ’94, Puppets for Democracy and Gary Friedman’s African Puppet Television which was approached to create short voting education programmes for daily broadcast on South African television.

Other popular puppet television shows have included Spider’s Place, a multimedia science education series produced by Handspring Trust for Puppetry in Education and Za News, a political satire using caricature puppets designed by Jonathan Shapiro (Zapiro) and produced by Both Worlds Productions. Za News was seen online and was the recipient of the Handspring Puppetry Award for Best Puppet Design category in 2010.

Handspring Puppet Company

At present the Handspring Puppet Company is the most prominent professional company and reflects puppetry as a powerful tool in an emergent crossover theatre in South Africa.

In 1981, a group of former art students formed the Handspring Puppet Company in Cape Town. After touring South Africa with a series of original plays for children, the company moved to Johannesburg in 1986 and worked in television and with theatre directors. Their work in collaboration with artist William Kentridge, such as Woyzeck on the Highveld, Faustus in Africa, and Ubu and the Truth Commission, has been touring internationally since 1991. Due to the great success of the production War Horse (for which Handspring created and directed the life-like equine puppets), as well as to the increase in popularity of puppetry both locally and internationally, Handspring is experiencing high levels of demand on the company. Their contribution to South African puppetry since the 1980s has been not only to develop an indigenous form of iconic South African multimedia performance rooted in a skilled puppetry design and performance but also to put adult puppetry on the local map. Their experimentations in crossover multi-disciplinarity with William Kentridge have set the standard for contemporary puppetry performance both locally and abroad. In the vaguely documented and defined puppetry traditions of South Africa, their work has stood as the guiding canon of contemporary South African puppetry for adult audiences for the past twenty years.

For more information, see Handspring Puppet Company.

South African puppetry in the 21st century

New voices

A number of new puppet companies and artists have emerged in the 21st century, including:

Aja Marneweck

Conrad Coch

The Space Behind the Couch, under the direction of Beren Belknap, creates puppet theatre and multimedia shows for adults and teens.

Isibane, an Active Puppets graduate group, now performs in theatres and tours professionally.

Jane Taylor, an established playwright and director, has begun working as an independent puppet theatre director.

FTH:K, a visual performance group, works with a cross-section of masks and puppets and is characterized by their strong physical performance.

Jori Snell creates tightly choreographed visual performance works featuring object manipulation, projected imagery and puppet-like costumes.

Illka Lowe, an established designer, has begun creating puppets and directing puppet theatre sometimes in partnership with Hilette Stapleberg. Stapleberg is a longstanding puppet builder who has recently become involved in creating puppets for large-scale productions and writing her own puppet theatre work.

Ubom! creates physical object-based visual performance and puppet theatre for young audiences and adults.

Cosmos Productions, directed by Jacqueline Van Meygaarden, creates puppetry and physical performance theatre that centres on themes of environmental awareness.

Rainbow Puppet Theatre, a Steiner-based puppetry group, performs for children on a weekly basis.

The Giant Match Association, a group from the township Orange Farm who were trained by Les Grandes Personnes (based in Aubervilliers, France), have toured the country performing regularly at parade events.

Roger Titley’s Creatures have paraded in their hundreds at various national and international events and include the giant elephants and dung beetle featured at the closing ceremony of the 2010 World Cup.

Puppetry South Africa’s Active Puppets programme also produced a series of giant puppets, which were widely featured at events surrounding the World Cup.

Daniel Poppers first developed his super-giant Pop Puppets for the AfrikaBurn event. His puppets, which often exceed 4 metres in height, are also regularly fitted with lighting mechanisms, allowing them to glow in night parades.

Out The Box Festival

Instigated by Janni Younge in 2005, the Out The Box Festival of Puppetry and Visual Performance developed under the leadership of Aja Marneweck and Janni Younge into the largest international puppetry festival on the African continent.

For more information, see Out The Box.

Handspring Puppetry Awards

The introduction of the Handspring Puppetry Awards in 2010 consolidated puppetry and visual performance as a genre of its own standing in South African arts and culture.

Puppetry and education

Puppetry is often used as an educational tool, as reflected in the activities of AREPP (African Research and Educational Puppetry Program). AREPP was established by Gary Friedman in 1987. Puppets Against AIDS was their first large project, which began performing and conducting peer-group community educational workshops in 1988 to promote HIV/AIDS awareness in the townships and in the workplace throughout South Africa, working with puppeteers who perform in local languages. This programme and its techniques have been presented in Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Kenya, Réunion, as well as in Canada, Australia, France and Germany. AREPP is now run by Gordon Bilbrough with artistic director Brigid Shutz. They continue to be an important force in South African puppetry and education.

International links are retained by local puppeteers through affiliate membership of UNIMA (Union Internationale de la Marionette).

Puppetry South Africa (UNIMA SA) runs year-round puppetry education and development programmes. Active Puppets (under the leadership of Cindy Mkaza and Zandile Bekwa) and Creative Hands (as the programmes are called) teach puppetry skills to historically disadvantaged children and young adults. The resulting productions are of professional standard and are often focused on raising awareness about social questions relevant to the communities of origin of the participants.

Puppetry is taught at a number of institutions, including the University of Stellenbosch and Tshwane University of Technology.

Other development programmes include:

The Handspring Trust which was re-established in 2010 to build skills in puppetry amongst impoverished children and youth as well as amongst young, emerging and professional artists.
The Living Landscape Project (developed by University of Cape Town and Magnet Theatre) based in Clanwilliam. The project holds an annual spring lantern parade. For this event, children from the community of Clanwilliam build puppets and lanterns based on San/Bushman iconic figures.
Jungle Theatre creates puppetry and physical theatre based on educational themes of environmental awareness. Jungle Theatre also has a training programme where they develop performance and puppetry skills amongst young performers.

Sources on Puppetry and Marionettes in South Africa

Elna Agenbach. 1980. Donsie en Slonsie: 'n Werkboek in vier dele vir die poppekas) Cape Town: Tafelberg.

Zuanda Badenhorst 2005. South African Puppetry for the Theatre since 1975. Pretoria: Tshwane University of Technology. Unpublished master's thesis.

Kruger, M.S. 1987. Poppespel - 'n Ondersoek na die historiese ontwikkeling, die spelbeginsels, karakter en gebruiksmoontlikhede van die toneelpop. Unpublished master’s thesis. Stellenbosch: University of Stellenbosch.

Kruger, Marie 2006. The power of double vision: tradition and social intervention in African puppet performance. New Theatre Quarterly, 22(4):324-336.

Kruger, Marie 2007. Puppets in education and development in Africa: the puppet’s dual nature and sign systems in action. South African Theatre Journal, 21:64-74.

Kruger, Marie 2008. Puppets in educational entertainment in South Africa: comments on a number of long-term projects. South African Theatre Journal, 22:25-43.

Kruger, Marie 2011. Puppets and adult entertainment in South Africa: a tale of a tentative start, evolving prejudices, new and lost opportunities, and a fresh momentum. South African Theatre Journal, 25(1):13-34.

Kruger, Marie 2012. South African adult puppetry: tracing the roots of contemporary eclectic puppetry. South African Theatre Journal, 26(2):172-184.

https://wepa.unima.org/en/south-africa/

Go to ESAT Bibliography