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The role of puppets
I try consciously to push the role of the puppet, and in Next , in the Macbeth scene, I had
Shakespeare (who in ef ect, was being operated by me) operating the dummy, who in turn was
operating a glove puppet of a witch. This seemed to be a suitably Shakespearean nod to fate
and animation, with some greater force manipulating us. Some productions of Macbeth have
portrayed the witches as puppets, although I have seen a production where the witches were
puppets operated by Macbeth himself in a somewhat drunken stupor, reinforcing the idea of
the necessary change of perspective to see the truth. The puppets were a catalyst for Macbeth's
darkest thoughts to be made real. I have always been fond of the original cast recording of My
Fair Lady that depicted Bernard Shaw operating marionettes of Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews.
The Pygmalion story is one with many resonances for animators.
Trying to put weight into a lifeless object.
In all my i lms, characters watch, guide, observe and manipulate others, and may be l irting
with something profound. This is a recurring theme for me. I'm not sure it's conscious, but it
is comforting to think that as I guide and manipulate a puppet someone may be guiding and
manipulating me. With Screen Play , the Recitor guides and literally manipulates the
story. He in turn uses two i gures in black, the Kurago, to animate the characters in
his memory. At the start, these i gures are seen operating the two main lovers as
puppets with rods as my acknowledgement of the art of Bunraku, where exquisite,
almost life-size puppets give astonishingly complex performances, more often
than not requiring two, or even three, operators. They wear black and with faces
usually concealed, and although hugely physical, they are invisible to the audience,
 
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