Illusion in Puppet Theatre

Abstract

The theme of this work is the study of illusion in puppet theatre. In the first part I will try to explain the notion of illusion in art in general. The main assumption is that art and illusion are two inseparable concepts. Illusion in a surreal way it helps the experience of the real and surreal world. A viewer, together with an artists, participates in that experience : the effect of that very illusion depends on the ability of the viewer to perceive the artist´s illusion. In theatrical art, illusion happens in one moment and in space, before the eyes of the audience. The miracle of illusion is created before us and we forget it is here. In theatrical art, illusion happens in one moment and in space, before the eyes of the audience. The miracle of illusion is created before us and we forget it is here.In puppetry, a puppet, as an artificially created stage figure, in its essence has an illusory character. A puppet owes its origin to a man?s need to create and its attempt to change the reality. Even in the pre ? historic period, a puppet was a means to make contacts with God. In Romanticism artists developed this metaphorical relationship and raised a puppet theatre as an artistically valuable form. The period of Modernism brought new thinking about the puppet theory. The modernists started to recognize new, symbolic possibilities in a puppet. This contributed to the development of a puppet theatre which requests its own language of illusion. A puppet doesn?t imitate reality any more, it creates a new reality. A further development of a puppet theatre takes the direction of experimenting with various possibilities of expression in puppetry. A partition screen has been rejected. Illusion is questioned because of the presentation of reality of creation. In search of poetic language of expression in a puppet theatre, the parts of a body, materials and objects start to be animated? Real objects assume a surreal meaning, and the illusion of metamorphosis happens before our eyes. At the end of this work I?ll pay attention to a puppet theatre in Croatia. In that short review I will try to give a summary of the development of puppetry and its illusion and to explain the influences which have contributed to that development.