New Year Greetings from Marionette Theatre Blog

Time has passed and Marionette Theatre Blog has been establishied for almost 3 years. Hereby wish everyone a smooth sailing Dragon Year!

Dragon tales and shadow puppets

For this coming lunar new year, it will be the year of Dragon (龙) and there have been many Chinese tales regarding the mythical being Dragon. In conjunction with the upcoming Dragon Year, the Esplanade had exhibited works on "Dragon Tales". One of them was a shadow play created and performed by the Singapore Girls' Home and conceived by the Finger Players, a Singapore puppet group. The Finger Players have also put up some shadow puppets made in the form of dragons.

The shadow play, titled "Awakening the Dragon from Within" was set in a cosmopolitan and bustling city. A little girl is trapped in despair in this city because no one seems to care or listen to her. A mythical dragon suddenly appears and encourages her to discover her courage and capability.

Inspired by the dragon, the little girl started making shadow puppets from cutouts and shared her skills with others.

 This story is meaningful in that it is a reflection of the lives of city dwellers. Many children and youths tend to feel neglected as their parents are often busy making a living or have little time to spare for them. If there is someone who is willing to lend a helping hand or guide them, there will be hope and future for them. Just like how the Finger Players have discovered the talents of the children from Singapore Girls' Home and give them a chance to take part in this shadow play.


The Dragon's parting words to the little girl was, "Believe in yourself and happiness will ensue."

Puppet performance to mark the opening of new Chong Yee temple

Was finally at Chong Yee temple on 12 November although the actual puppet performance started one day before. Here are some pictures of the puppet performance by "Ri Yue Xing" (日月星, popularly known as "Ji Gua Seng" in Hokkien).

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 Marionette performance by Ri Yue Xing

Close up of the puppet

The origins of "Ri Yue Xing" could be traced back to its previous owner and famous Hokkien puppeteer Lee Chye Ee. See my post on the late Mr. Lee Chye Ee:　http://marionettetheatre.blogspot.com/search?q=lee+chye+ee&x=1&y=3

Entrance of the Chong Yee temple but the sign writes "Jalan Kayu United temple"

Was initially confused by the address as there was almost no information providing the specific address of the new Chong Yee temple (万国山忠义庙) until I visited their facebook page. I shall include the address here: 

Jalan Kayu Buangkok (Hill) Chong Yee Temple 

72 Sengkang West Avenue

Singapore 797652

Talks on Chinese puppets and opera at Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall

Wan Qing Yuan (晚晴园), formerly known as Sun Yat-Sen villa, is now known as the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall. It was closed for redevelopment last year and reopened this month which happened to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the 1911 Revolution of China.

Statue of Dr. Sun Yat-sen outside the Memorial Hall

Photo courtesy of Derrick See

There will be a cultural festival (9-30 October) which is already ongoing. What is of interest to me is the upcoming talks on Chinese puppets and opera.

27 October "Puppetry in Chinese Opera", 2-4pm

29 October "Puppetry in Chinese Opera", 10am-12pm

The English and Chinese titles on the programme sheet are a little confusing but according to a friend, both talks will be on Chinese puppetry and the content is the same on both days (so don't worry about missing out anything if you cannot attend the Thursday talk). 

Details of the programme can be found here: http://www.wanqingyuan.com.sg/culturefest/

Will update soon on the talks!

Who says puppets are unrealistic?

Was very delighted to see puppet display at the Esplanade walkway last month. These puppets are actually depictions of real-life people who are usually neglected by the mainstream society, like the utensil collector, street performer, cardboard collector and gardener, etc.

Mr Ali, the gardener

Uncle Fong, the cardboard collector

Auntie selling noodles

Mr. Tan, can collector

Uncle Tan, construction worker 

Cleaner

Indeed these are the various occupations held by some of the middle-aged and elderly people in modern day Singapore. They belong to one of the lowest strata of society and can barely afford 3 meals a day. I like the details of the puppets and the way the creators bring out an interesting aspect of these people's lives through the use of puppets. The expressions on the puppets are usually gloomy or sad which can be interpreted as a kind of social stigma these people have to overcome in life. 

The puppets have strings attached to them which mean they can be categorized as "marionettes". However, the creators and manipulators of these puppets also cleverly perform these puppets in real-life situations, e.g. on a walking street, near the garden etc.


This puppet project titled "Circus of Life" is created by the Papermoon Puppet (Indonesia) and the School of Design and Media, ITE (Singapore). More details of the Papermoon Puppet can be found here: http://www.papermoonpuppet.com/.

Sun Yat Sen and Cantonese opera

Chinese revolutionist Sun Yat Sen is known for his founding of modern China. But do you know that he has a brief contact with Cantonese opera before? Does this picture serve as a hint? More information to be revealed later...

Italian aria + Southern Chinese music (Nanguan) = Glove Puppet show "Marco Polo"

"Marco Polo" by Taiyuan Puppet Theatre Company
Friday 26 August, Saturday 27 August, 7.15pm & 11.30pm
Glass Atrium, Level 2, National Museum of Singapore


Adapted from taovictor's writeup: 

Hi folks,

If you missed the Tai Yuan Puppet Theatre Company’s performance of Marco Polo, you missed one of the best potehi (glove puppet) shows! Imagine how many are there in the world, maybe only this one, where there is a puppet show where Italian Aria and Nanyin are sung! (^^) What a hoot! And I wonder how many in the world would be able to understand both languages? Maybe some Taiwanese … well, some Nanyang Chinese who are Aria singers. (^^)

And trying to do a duet??  Must be challenging to put the music and lyrics .. but what fun! I cannot understand Italian and so would need Stefano to tell us. Maybe give us the subtitle. The Hokkien was hilarious. Imagine what the maid said about this strange guy who looks like a pig! (^^) Much of the dialogues are not displayed … it would be a mammoth task to do that subtitling at the speed which the dialog goes. I looked around and wondered, how many in the audience could understand Chinese. Not many local children I think, but many foreign ones!! And look at the crowd! Yes, this is Saturday night. But one could count by the two hands on potehi in Singapore! At, but perhaps, it is because the local potehi is meant for the Gods and so the stories are very serious, often sobby, and difficult to follow. Marco Polo? Fun, comic and certainly poking fun at the cross-cultural understanding, or misunderstanding. Is it true that Marco Polo stole the diary from his brother Matteo? (^^)

The scenes were many and the story moved very fast .. climax after climax, the audience had no time to rest. Never mind that they did not understand all the dialog, the actions were enough to keep them glued to that tiny audience.

I noticed that there was a video recording of the show. Hope this is made available to the public, especially, the schools. Add in the subtitling, and it would be a great piece. Certainly an interesting way to get the students to learn about Marco Polo! (^^)

Videos as well:

Seeing 'stars': a plot to save Marco Polo from death

 Marco Polo confessing his love

 Hokkien Nanyin (Nanguan, Southern music) VS Italian aria