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 Beach, 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 del 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.

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. There was the 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), and 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.

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.

Puppetry and education

Puppetry is often used as an educational tool, as reflected in the activities of AREPP (African Research and Educational Puppetry Program) International links are retained by local puppeteers through affiliate membership of UNIMA (Union Internationale de la Marionette). It is taught at a number of institutions, including the University of Stellenbosch and Tshwane University of Technology.

(MK)

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/

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