Pulling no strings

Published on January 28, 2008

Presented as part of the ongoing Bangkok Fringe Festival 2008 at Patravadi Theatre's Studio 1 last weekend, Spanish puppet theatre troupe Yheppa's "@s" offered two thematically relevant short plays about children and showed how worthwhile life lessons can provide excellent entertainment for both the young and the young at heart.

"Lilith", adapted from the contemporary Spanish children's story "Rosa Caramelo" by Adela Turin, revealed the disparities between the two sexes. The grey-skinned Cucuye boys are having fun as they run freely in the forest, playfully picking fruit from the trees. Their feminine counterparts in pink aprons, though, are confined to a fenced garden, and have to eat flowers so their skin will turn pink. Lilith's parents are worried because their daughter's skin is not pink, and if this persists, no one will want to marry her.

Lilith wants to escape, and after a dream and the help of a snake, she finally does. The other girls follow and now they too are enjoying the freedom to play in the forest. Finally, there are no more Cucuye girls and boys - they're all Cucuye kids.

In the second play "Aron", adapted from Tomie de Paola's "Oliver Button es una nena", the young title character wants to be a ballet dancer. The idea is well supported by his mother but not by his father who would prefer to see him on the football pitch. His friends bully him while his teacher comforts him and later enrols him in a talent contest. Even though Aron doesn't bag the top prize, his father and friends now understand his artistic potential and accept him as he really is.

Obviously, sexual identities and stereotypes are being questioned here. Most kids want to fit in but often their natures and desires are in conflict with societal and parental expectations. Childhood should be the time for boys and girls to learn and explore anything they want, before choosing what they want to do when they grow up. Parents, many of whom do not really understand their kids, dominate and overrule when it's time for their young ones to make important decisions.

The puppet masters' simple yet significant message is clearly universal. Watching these two plays, I was reminded of my teenage years when I had to decide whether to concentrate on the sciences or languages at high school. It's felt that most boys prefer the former to the latter and indeed, many parents also believe that the sciences are for the smarter ones. Had my parents not been so understanding, I might not be writing this article.

At the post-show interview with The Nation, Diana Yolanda Marcos and Carlos Diez, the troupe's two main collaborators, further elaborated. "In Spanish, masculine words end with the prefix '-os', and feminine ones with '-as', and yet the former takes control when it comes to collective words, like 'niños'. Nowadays, newly coined neutral words like 'niños/as' are widely accepted, hence we called these plays '@s'.

"We view this issue as one of the major cultural problems in Spanish society today, and we want to further illustrate it with our stage work. We hope to promote sexual equality and hope that our audiences will help rid of this problem."

Apart from numerous performances at home, the puppeteers have presented their shows in Mexico, Venezuela, Turkey and Japan, where audiences listened to the Japanese translation of the text on headphones. "We've found that these countries share the same problem. In Japan, for example, the audience felt as if the show had been created especially for them. We know, though, that gender is not such a major issue in Northern Europe so we've never performed this play there."

Yheppa puts the children first, and, in their other works throughout the past 18 years, has used various forms of puppet theatre in presenting a wide variety of issues that range from migration to water contamination. "We want them to create a better world for the future."

In the 45-minute "@s", Marcos and Diez worked efficiently individually as well as collectively in their skilful performance. The near-full-house Bangkok audience witnessed their puppetry magic as they brought all the characters to life with their able hands and voices.

A minor letdown was the fact that the 50-minute "@s" was performed entirely in Spanish, with no English surtitles. Although every audience member received a Thai and English synopsis at the entrance, many details were lost in the wordy dramatic tales. Many young Thais could be heard asking questions of their parents during the performance. With the Thai and English surtitles, perhaps, the memorable production could have been staged for a wider group of spectators here, and hence been able to communicate a more meaningful message.

The Bangkok Fringe Festival 2008 continues every weekend until February 17 at the Patravadi Theatre. Details at Patravaditheatre.com. The Spanish Puppetry troupe's website is Yheppa.com (in Spanish only).

Special thanks to Darintip Chansit for help in translating the interview into Thai.

The writer can be contacted at Pawit.M@chula.ac.th.

Pawit Mahasarinand

The Nation