Puppets in Theatre

A testament to puppets and the revolution of imagination has lead me to the theater to enjoy the spectacle of what was to be seen: Avenue Q and War Horse. Although these two plays do not compliment each other in similar genres, they take advantage of the usage of obscure extensions of the human element through puppets. Avenue Q has been raved as one of the more crass plays currently on tour, and more than naturally did I gravitate to such a showing. Being solely aware that its contents were of the explicit variety, I did not imagine puppets to be the center stage of the play, nor did I expect myself to get a decent enough view to see these puppets (I’m basically blind), but to my surprise they were extremely large. I was incredibly grateful that I was able to even see these characters at the very least! For someone like me who is not avidly in tuned with musicals and plays in general, seeing Avenue Q was bizarre movie experience without the film, yet the action, the music, and my interests remained.  Although my only complaint about Avenue Q was that my expectations of crude humor was kept to a minimum and was not as offensive and outrageous as I thought but it was a good play to see regardless. The play encompassed themes  (and is not limited to) romance, interracial relationships, Gary Coleman, the lows of being a college graduate, and an in the closet character who’s in love with his straight roommate. The variation of the themes don’t stray away the audiences’ attention but gives them a chance to regard the play as an experience of their own by letting them relate to certain situations or characters.

Advance a few weeks later, and come to find out War Horse was on the agenda for class. Personally I didn’t think I would have had the chance to view another play that was on the same caliber of production and interest to me like Avenue Q, especially through an educational institution. Though I have to admit that my initial thoughts on War Horse, just entirely based on the title would be painfully long and boring just based on the fact that I don’t really enjoy themes of war for my own viewing pleasure, but the fact that I had been seeing the War Horse poster amongst the walls of the tube stations lead my curiosity lingering for more. As the night fell to see War Horse, I was honestly expecting to sit in my seat for 1.5-2 hours but ended up being disappointed by the length of the show, which was nearly 3 hours, and for someone with a short attention span, I was sure that my interest would diminish. Upon getting seated I wasn’t sure what I was more annoyed at: the length of the play or the audience member 12 o’ clock from me. One of the first and utmost basic things we were briefed on before going to a play were the dos and don’ts about theatre etiquette, it warned us to be on time, warned us not to talk, and the one I was expecting least from the manifesto of theatre etiquette was the statement that one with big hair should enter with caution! Naively dismissing the big hair situations as I thought that perhaps the article was due for an update because I had the assumption the author was implying we were still stuck in the decades with (un)fashionably large hair. However to my surprise, I did not get an audience member who sat in front of my view with large hair but instead an entire head full of primp locks…who continued throughout the play to smooth with her hair which was completely frustrating. Initially, I thought that my seat was very good as I was placed in one of the better levels of seating but having my view obstructed several times without warning gave me reason to believe I had perhaps the worse seats ever.

Nonetheless, the play itself was pleasantly surprising, as I really didn’t expect myself to enjoy it based on the conditions of my experience. Despite the situation, I managed to find a growing fondness for Joey all throughout the play, especially since he was constantly evolving. Normally, I would have never guessed a mature style play to place emphasis on any animals but instead bring the focus to the human characters of the production. I had expectations that the fluidity of the play would match Avenue Q in length and in structure. Avenue Q in parts: introduction (characters are introduced), middle (stories begin to blossom), peak (drama), end of peak (drama relinquished), and conclusion. Yet I found that War Horse did the same but dragged out the peak of the drama until it became obscure whether or not the drama was ever going to end. Maybe I felt that way because I don’t enjoy war, period, but others had seem to enjoy the parts that I disliked the most—but only because they seem to be interested in war themes.

The most striking quality of both of the plays I saw were that the props was the center of the storyline. Normally I would find animal characters and puppets a common theme in children’s storytelling but this was its antithesis. One would probably identify puppets with a childish luster but in Avenue Q, these puppets were to used to detail a storyline that had significant meanings through the portrayal of a comical puppet act, meanings that may tune in with our own personal lives. I’m suggesting that the play had in depth meanings but was covered up by the not-so-serious display of puppets and crass script. Contrastingly, War Horse’s objective in using the puppet horse of Joey was to display realism to a fictional play and it is in this same breath that there was an alluring visual performance that was felt for the characters. As an overview, despite these differences seen in both Avenue Q and War Horse, I would recommend both plays to anyone interested for a good play to see. 

Tracy Nguyen

UCSC