NUK - logo
E-viri
Celotno besedilo
Recenzirano
  • On Hybridity in Puppetry
    Wiśniewska, Marzenna

    Performance research, 06/2020, Letnik: 25, Številka: 4
    Journal Article

    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.