Recurring Images - Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance - page 58

quivered in shock, provoking a release of laughter from the audience. A few snif s milked the
moment, then the puppet was bundled away and we were into the next shocking scene. But
how could a raw puppet, with a visible operator, manage to shock an audience more than a
boy actor with prosthetic thumbs and lashings of Kensington Gore? Good staging, direction,
performance and storytelling are crucial to such a scene working, but it was probably the
simple look from the puppet to the audience that engaged their sympathy. The puppet was
doing only the most contained of movements, pulling the audience in. Perhaps the audience
felt safe with a puppet, assuming a certain cosiness, or perhaps they had gone along with the
suspension of disbelief and then found themselves shockingly out of their depth. Whatever, it's
a treasured moment out of many in the theatre.
There have been several attempts to i lm this show, including with stop motion, but it needs
a live audience, as recording it removes the danger and the shared experience. A dif erent
approach would certainly work.
Oscar Wilde was more succinct.
'Give a man a mask, and he'll tell you the truth.
For 'mask' any number of distancing devices can be used from make-up, to ballet, opera, and,
yes, stop motion.