Shadows and Strings

Yesterday we attended a few shows at the "Harmony World Puppet Carnival Bangkok 2014." The festival showcases 160 puppet troupes from around the world. I thought this would be a fun event for the kids and with all the events free, there was really no reason not to go. So I picked a convenient day and booked a few shows for us. The shows were at a handful of museums and galleries near the Grand Palace. The trip to the first venue was uneventful and took less time than we had planned (an amazing occurrence in Bangkok's legendary traffic). We walked around Democracy Monument and snacked on roasted bananas, fresh mango and watermelon, and fried bread balls.

The first show was a "workshop" by a hand shadow puppet group from Georgia (the country, not the state). After being welcomed by a recording in approximately ten languages, one of the group members told us a little about the history of the troupe. It was started by a man who was interested in puppeteering but couldn't afford puppets. He began using just his hands because that's all he had, but he became so good at this that it became a show in its own right. We got to go behind stage and watch how the members worked together to make pretty impressive shadow images: a spider playing the piano made the girls laugh, flowers budding, a bird catching a fly to name a few. My favorite was dancing bears. Then we had a chance to try ourselves, but only Hollis was brave enough to do so. One of the puppeteers helped her to shape a brief spider, then she was done.

The next place was about a ten minute walk away. There was a shuttle but it wasn't due to arrive for another twenty to thirty minutes, and I was worried about missing the start of the next show. Despite "booking" for the shows, there seemed no record of it at the first location, and we were told "first come, first served." With this in mind, we opted to walk. It started to sprinkle, then rain, then pour. It wouldn't have been so bad except for the shows were inside in air conditioned buildings. Oh well, we made it to the next place in good time. This show was called "The Road to Bolero" and was a story about the "Little Orchestra" performing their opening night of Maurice Revel's Bolero. Eris was able to follow the story, laughing at all the appropriate times. She later declared this her favorite performance. Hollis was sitting on Philip's lap, and she was watching a completely different story unfold. She told Philip that the lion was having trouble. He asked her to point out the lion next time it was up, and she pointed out the flute playing puppet saying, "There's the lion!"

We then went to try to find something to eat. We had speculated that the carnival organizers would have arranged for food vendors to be around Sanam Luang, the huge lawn by the Palace and where an outdoor stage was set up. The place was nearly deserted. We asked the girls if they would like to find a restaurant for a "real supper" or to look for a snack and go to another show. They all agreed, "snack and another show!" Hollis was really hoping to find ice cream, but all we found were Thai hot dogs at a stand outside the park.

The last show of the night was a rendition of Peru's Andean Ritual Scissors Dance done by a single performer. It began with cut out puppets of alpacas and eagles and then proceeded with a serious of puppets performing the dance. First flat cut out puppets maneuvered with sticks behind demonstrated the dance. This was followed by two hand puppets upside down from traditional puppets, so fingers could be used for legs. A whimsical six-inch marionette danced on the audience's hands and heads; next a three foot high marionette danced around the entire stage. While Philip would have preferred a more traditional set up where the puppeteer was hidden behind a curtain, but I did enjoy seeing the manipulations of the puppet as his legs kicked and his body leapt. At the climax, the puppeteer dressed himself in the traditional dancer regalia and performed his own dance. It's difficult to describe the kicking, somersaulting, and jumping across the stage all while clacking a pair of unjoined scissors as castanets. Both Meriel and Hollis chose show as their favorite. Meriel was particularly impressing, recognizing it would be difficult to learn all the different moves in the dance.

After getting our exhausted children tucked in, Philip noted, "Think of the difference between this afternoon and evening from the one which would have been if we had stayed home." Rich experiences for our children come at a cost: the risk of it not being worth it, time on buses in traffic, late bedtimes, less than ideal meals. Now I wouldn't want to do this sort of thing every day, but this evening with at the Puppet Carnival was worth it; it will be a memorable event for awhile yet.