Cardboard insurrection
Puppetry and activism in the United States
von John Bell
Erschienen in: Arbeitsbuch 2018: Der Dinge Stand – Zeitgenössisches Figuren- und Objekttheater (06/2018)
There has always been an uneasy relationship between the arts and activism in United States culture: a suspicion among institutions and professionals that a robust overlap between politics and culture taints the possibilities of “pure” art making. This sensibility, hardened during the Cold War years when McCarthyist suspicions of leftist politics ran rampant, lessened during the 1960s and 70s (the era when Bread & Puppet Theater’s street activism and political puppetry emerged) but still maintains itself, especially among more conservative elements of American society.
Nonetheless – as has always been the case with political activities in public spaces – puppets, masks, and performing objects present themselves to everyday citizens, activists, and engaged artists as the most logical and adaptable means of articulating ideas and feelings. The inspired use of easily accessible materials like cardboard was recently articulated in Bread & Puppet Theater’s December 2017 opera Honey, Let’s Go Home. Accompanied by over-size cardboard cut-outs of such puppet-making tools as a mat knife, staple gun, and pliers, Greg Corbino and Susie Perkins sang the following text to the tune of Gilbert and Sullivan’s duet “Rapture, Rapture” from The Yeoman of the Guard:
Cardboard, cardboard!
Cardboard, cardboard!
When the boss...
