For most German-speakers, of all ages, the name 'Kasperl' conjures up joyful images of a harmless children's puppet theatre character. Recent research in Austrian popular theatre has uncovered Kasperl's origins in live theatre performances from the eighteenth century, however. The 'Kasperl Project' concluded that Kasperl is a product of the Enlightenment civilization process and therefore a watered-down and ineffectual successor to his bawdy and flamboyant predecessors in comic theatre. The 'Kasperl Project' did not devote much analysis to the linguistic comedy of these plays, however. The Kasperl character's linguistic comedy is therefore the subject of this doctoral thesis. From the character's origins through to present day popular theatre, this thesis investigates the potential for socio-political commentary and engagemenUhat was embedded in Kasperl's comic word playas a means to subtly challenge state reform, censorship and rule. Comically subversive word play from an apparently harmless theatre clown is revealed as a survival strategy in Austrian popular theatre to best meet the challenge of a new era that largely took its cue from linguistic and educational reforms. With reference to Bakhtin's theories of the chronotope and the carnivalesque, to the history of the theatre fool and to historical, social, economic and political circumstances, this thesis asserts the theatre clown Kasperl 's role in popular theatre's engagement with the Enlightenment, not as a passive repository of state demands, but as an active agent of dialogue and change through to the present day.

This thesis concerns how everyday objects produce meaning in the apparatus of performance. The arrangement of the apparatus—including the performer, space, time, objects, audience, and the choreography of these elements—acts to shift the meaning of objects and materials from the everyday. Meaning is determined by an object’s material properties—its flexibility and weight, the sound it makes—but these properties take on significance depending on what happens around and in relation to the object. This is a lesson that is familiar to observers and practitioners of puppet theatre. Puppets do not acquire meaning solely based on their outside characteristics. They also signify based on the material properties (such as malleability) that emerge when they are manipulated. My practice-based research, grounded in both puppetry and live art practices, displaces objects from the places they are customarily used in order to highlight or subvert the ways that objects are used in everyday life. I focus attention on the flux of objects in action. Animation emerges from my manipulation of such simple objects as paper, balloons, biscuits, glasses, thread and pencils. Animation in puppetry and object theatre is sometimes conceived as a means to give the appearance of life to dead objects, often by anthropomorphizing them. My understanding of animation is not mimetic, but involves a focus on emergent phenomena. I thereby interrogate the binary opposition of life and death. I also challenge the tendency to read objects and phenomena such as rainbows symbolically by dissociating them from their normal contexts and associated sentiments. Stripping objects of their accreted layers of meaning, I attend to the emergence of the here and now. Bridging concerns with the body and an object oriented ontology, I bring new theoretical understandings of the vibrancy of matter to live art and object performance.

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Since the beginning of the 1980s, artists such as Neville Tranter in the Netherlands, Philippe Genty in France, Ilka Schönbein in Germany and Compagnie Mossoux-Bonté in Belgium have developed a new form of performance that I call manipulacting. By interacting with puppets, performers enter the fictional world of the puppets and appear as their Others. This study argues that manipulacting is a new and distinct form of performance. Although manipulacting combines acting and puppetry, it differs from them because it discloses a human being and an object engaged in a relation of self to Other. Manipulacting is defined by this specific relation and not by a particular aesthetic or technique. The methodology of the thesis is framed by Practice-as-Research from a directorial perspective. The enquiry includes four personal research projects – Seaside (2007-08), Postalgia (2008), Urashima Taro (2007-09) and The Maids (2009-10) – that explore the relations between manipulactors and puppets through different dramaturgical and performative settings, interviews with Neville Tranter, Nicole Mossoux and Duda Paiva, and detailed analyses of Cuniculus (2008) by Tranter and Twin Houses (1994) by Mossoux-Bonté. The thesis proposes two areas of new knowledge. Firstly, it suggests a rethinking of the nature of the puppet and an understanding of it by way of its alterity. It discusses the ontological ambiguity of the puppet in manipulacting, by re-functioning phenomenological aspects of thought developed by Sartre in The Imaginary (1940) and 5 Being and Nothingness (1943), and by Levinas in Totality and Infinity (1961). Secondly, the thesis explores the specificity of manipulacting by looking at representations of the Other developed in dramatic and postdramatic performances. It explores the alterity of the puppet in relation to dramaturgical meaning, as well as the production of ambiguity in performance. It concludes by discussing the core dramaturgical and performative elements that constitute manipulacting.

This thesis is intended to be the first detailed account of the craftsmanship, iconography and background of the Balinese shadow play. The theatre has an important place in Balinese culture both as it is seen to be the original art form and also as it is an essential part of religious rites. The stories upon which the plays are based are taken mainly from the Hindu epics, the Mahabharats and Ramayana. The characters, most of who are derived from the epics, are first introduced. This is a relevant background for understanding the iconography. The thesis then turns to look at the making of the puppets. From this it emerges that complex cultural and ritual regulations underpin the craft. This leads into the largest section of the work which deals with an examination of the principles underlying the depiction of the mythical characters and their significance in terms of both the texts and the oral tradition. It is evident that the puppets are composed of standard parts which carry a more or less defined meaning. There is one important class of figures which stand out by the uniqueness of their depiction, but do not exist in the epics at all. These are the servants who are studied in some detail. It is useful further to stand back and survey a collection of puppets as a whole. This reveals complex forms of connections with social institutions and cultural beliefs. A study of the Iconography is incomplete however without an examination of the performance itself in which the puppets are seen as part of a more elaborate system including other dramatic elements. This provides the means by which cultural ideas are portrayed both through the visual form and the spoken word to the Balinese.

Cette thèse a pour objet la problématique de l’espace dans l’art de la marionnette. S’appuyant sur un corpus de créations contemporaines (compagnie Philippe Genty, Ilka Schönbein, Turak Théâtre, Théâtre de la Licorne), cette recherche examine l’espace marionnettique et ses enjeux en termes d’instauration des corps, de place du spectateur et de théâtralisation de l’imaginaire. La marionnette est ici envisagée comme figure porteuse d’un ailleurs, mais aussi instauratrice d’un espace imaginaire. Une telle théâtralisation est instaurée au travers d’une illusion liée à l’animation, du rapport scène/salle renégocié, d’une mise en abyme qui met en dialogue l’inerte et l’animé. La thèse est par ailleurs attentive aux dispositifs traditionnels, repris et réinventés sur les scènes contemporaines : écran du théâtre d’ombres, table du bunraku, cadre et boîte scéniques du castelet. Il s’agit d’examiner, dans une perspective anthropologique, scénographique et poïétique un espace marqué par une dynamique d’échelles. Comment un tel espace, souvent traversé par une dialectique entre intérieur et extérieur, un dialogue entre réel et illusion, mais aussi une économie scénique fondée sur la monstration et la dissimulation et un enchâssement des niveaux de lecture de l’image scénique peut féconder un imaginaire ? Comment, dans la manipulation à vue, pratique centrale en marionnette contemporaine, l’espace marionnettique devient un véritable espace relationnel et le lieu d’une problématisation de la figure et du corps ? / This thesis aims at dealing with the topic of Space in Puppet Art, through a various corpus of contemporary productions (compagnie Philippe Genty – Ilka Schönbein – Théâtre La Licorne – Turak Théâtre). It considers the puppet space and its key issues in terms of creative « fade-in » process of the bodies, and of theatricalisation of imagination, and explores the status and place of its audience. The puppet, as a figure which carries an « elsewhere », establishes also a new imaginary space. Such process of theatricalisation is produced by an illusion related to animation, by a « new deal » between stage and public, or by a mise en abyme which builds a dialogue between liveless and living being. The thesis pays also attention to the way traditional devices are re-invested and re-invented on contemporary stages: shadow theatre screen, Bunraku table, puppet playhouse and stage. It examines, in an anthropological, scenographical and poïetical approach, how space is marked by a dynamic between different scales.In other terms, it explores how this new imaginary sphere can be produced by such a space, frequently impregnated by a dialectical relationship between the Inside and the Outside, or by a scenic organization founded both on showing and hiding, or on the entrenchment of different reading levels of scenic image. And how, considering on-sight manipulation, which is a current and central practice in modern puppet theatre, the puppetry space becomes a real « relational » space, as it becomes a place where the body is interrogated.

Cette thèse, relevant de la problématique des avatars et des métaphores de la figure humaine et deses multiples représentations scéniques, interroge les créations contemporaines de la marionnette. Elle a pourpoint de départ la pratique de la marionnette et la place conférée à la figure dans les dispositifs scéniques.Fondés sur des confluences des figures animées et des images de synthèse, les dispositifs contemporains issusdes nouvelles techniques de l’image et du son ont permis de dépasser la structure traditionnelle de lamarionnette. A mi-chemin entre poupée et forme raffinée, la marionnette dépasse ses contours et ouvre vers denouvelles représentations scéniques : des ombres, des doubles virtuels, des avatars de synthèse, pouvant êtretransformés et évolués en temps réel. Toutes ses représentations posent la question de l’incarnation. Ainsi lafigure de l’avatar se présente comme un possible prolongement de la marionnette. Les outils technologiquespermettent une nouvelle manière de former, d’élaborer la figure. Ils offrent une infinie possibilité de ladédoubler, de la multiplier, de la répliquer. Dans ce geste répétitif la figure tend progressivement vers uneffacement de ses contours. Loin de la forme anthropomorphique, elle symbolise le plus souvent une idée, unconcept, un mot en jouant sur l’essence de la matière et les agencements plastiques d’objets et de matières.Quant aux possibles dédoublements de l’interprète réalisés grâce aux technologies de l’image et du son, lecorps vivant en chair et en os se démultiplie dans des figurations comme les ombres, les reflets et les doublesvirtuels. Ces derniers deviennent un indice, une icône de notre présence. La démultiplication spatiale etcorporelle de leur présence iconique fait scintiller les nombreux subterfuges d’une ruse scénique. Car cettenouvelle figure, construite par les jeux d’illusions et de leurres qu’autorise l’usage du numérique effaceprogressivement les contours traditionnels de la figure humaine en brouillant les pistes d’une identificationtangible. Ces nouvelles figures se présentent comme des images décalées et sont une véritable invitation àpenser l’absence et la présence, l’apparition et la disparition. La figure s’ouvre à une interprétation multiple etoffre une vision différée en interrogeant la place de l’humain dans notre société. Les dispositifs scéniques quiabritent ces figures deviennent une véritable iconostase pour leur déploiement. Espace d’une fiction du regard,la figure compose et décompose sans cesse ses contours en offrant son image à celui qui la regarde. Lespectateur est invité à vivre une expérience oculaire en le transformant en véritable acte de voir. / This thesis studies the problematics of avatars and metaphors of the human form and its manifoldstage representations; it questions contemporary ‘creation’ in the field of puppetry. The practice of puppetryand the place bestowed on the human form in staging devices are the starting point of the study. Located at theconvergence of animated figures and of computer graphics, contemporary staging devices that stem from newtechniques of sound and video have allowed us to surpass the traditional framework of the puppet. Halfwaybetween doll and refined figure, the puppet goes beyond its outline and opens the path towards new stagerepresentations; shadows and virtual doubles, CGI avatars, which can all be transformed and developed in realtime. All its representations beg the question of incarnation. Thus the face of the avatar is presented as apossible extension of the puppet. Technological tools allow new ways of devising and developing the face. Theyoffer infinite possibilities to divide the face, to multiply and replicate it. In this repetitive gesture, the facetends gradually to be effaced of its outlines. Far from the anthropomorphic figure, it symbolises here an ideamost often, a concept, a word that underscores the essence of the material and the visual arrangement of objectsand matter. As for the potential splitting of the performer achieved thanks to new technology in video andsound, the living boy in flesh and blood multiples as shadows, reflections and virtual doubles. The latterbecome a sign, an icon of our presence. Spatial and corporeal duplication of their iconic presence makes thenumerous subterfuges involved in a staging device sparkle. Because this new figure, built from simulatedreality games and digital lures, gradually erases the traditional contours of the human form by blurring thepaths to any tangible identification. These new forms are presented as staggered images and are a realinvitation to rethinking absence and presence, appearance and disappearance. The face/form is exposed tomultiple interpretations and offers a deferred vision by questioning the place of the human being in our society. Staging devices that shelter these forms become a true iconostasis for their demonstration. The face –the space belonging to the fiction of the gaze – incessantly makes and breaks its outlines by throwing up itsimage to those who watch him. The viewer is invited to undergo an ocular experience by transforming it into atrue act of seeing.