Norwich Puppet Theatre's Snow White
The
British-based Spanish-directedNorwich Puppet Theatre’s SNOW WHITE,
which had also been on view in Segovia, was barely 50 minutes long, but
it was not, as advertised, for children. It was played on and around an
old iron bed with rumpled linens ingenuously transformed into the castle,
the cottage and – when the two puppeteers climbed up it with bare
feet and yanked up their pants legs – the forest. A clarinetist
provided musically atmospheric sounds that helped keep this offbeat telling
of the classic fairy tale moving at a steady pace.
A real shiny red apple was suspended above the action. The suggestive power of this and other objects specifically selected to evoke emotions as well as the deep conviction of the puppeteers made for an unforgettable theatrical experience. Toys, tools, and bits of crudely carved wood were assembled to create highly expressive rod marionettes. Snow White was an antique ceramic Victorian doll articulated to meet the demands of the role. Her innocence and purity were in sharp contrast to the other grotesque puppets on view. These puppets were made from objects whose provenance was no more glamorous than the garden shed or a dusty attic. The prince, a plaster bust of Lenin fitted with much-too-short arms and legs of wood and metal, rode in on a toy horse. The queen’s obsession with physical beauty demanded and got glamorous sculpted features on her articulated bald head. Armless, legless, bare-breasted and wearing only a long slithering velvet skirt, this puppet queen adopted haughty reptilian poses, and only needed to be turned upside-down to transform into the crone, her true self. Faithful to the Grimms' tale and using minimal text, Luis Boy’s production created a world, simultaneously frightening and magical, that could not exist more effectively in any other medium than puppet theatre.
