On Hybridity in Puppetry

Abstract

Hybridity as the essence of puppetry is the key idea that is considered in the article. By reflecting upon aspects of in-betweenness in puppet performing practices, the conceptualization of puppetry’s hybridity permits us to overcome a prevalent view that reduces puppetry in terms of binary oppositions such as human/non-human, living/lifeless, tangible/intangible. In this regard, a hybrid perspective of puppetry enables the exploration of the connection between performer and performing object as a synergistic relationship. The three areas discussed in the article manifest some of the major and most influential strategies of performing ontological hybridity in the puppetry of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The first case focuses on Tadeusz Kantor’s bio-objects resulted in his theatre the genetically unique hybrid performer involved in creating the liminal, transgressive and subversive power of theatre. Based on contemporary puppet performances, the second part of the essay examines the ontological consequences of co-sharing and the interactive play of two bodies—the performer and the puppet. The final case deals with practices that merge puppeteering with complex forms of media, digital technologies and virtual environments. The article emphasizes the performative potential of perceptual multi-stability (after Erika Fisher-Lichte) produced by the hybrid puppet performing practices, resulting in the role of viewers as co-creators in puppetry hybridity.

Notes

1 Strong influences are visible in the aesthetics of puppets in contemporary Polish directors of different generations such as Piotr Tomaszuk and Paweł Passini. Kantor’s traces can also be found in such contemporary puppetry practices as Philippe Genty, Gisèle Vienne, Hotel Modern and Faulty Optic.

2 Emballages means ‘packaging’ and, for Kantor, constituted a gesture capable of showcasing an object at the same time as obscuring it from view. It was the artistic practice to make something seen from an invisible side (Kościuczuk 2015).