Puppet on Stage

Entertainment scenes became a good attraction for watching stories on religious themes. Eventually, in Ukraine, the puppet theater, despite its church origin, experienced active nationalization. 

These are Sokirinci (1770), Kupyansky (1829–1936) Slavutych (second half of the 19th century), and Khorol (early 20th century) vertepes.

First of all, the secular manifested visually: biblical characters (except Herod and Mary and Joseph) have bright folk features.

The biblical story about the Star of Bethlehem in the vertep has a ritual character, which probably determines the features of the puppets. 

For example, Mary is represented by a porcelain doll. Although this peculiarity also explained by the fact that the characters of the saints could not be carved.

In the play, Herod is not only a biblical character. It also symbolizes a monarchical power alien to the Ukrainian people. 

The sacred part of the vertep depicts scenes of the murder of children, represents active participation in the events of the Devil and Death.

All this demonstrates the criminal nature of the tsar's regime.

By the way, from the sacred part of the play in its folk component remains the Devil, who wants to destroy the Cossack. The infernal creature acts as a representative of monarchical power. He tries to kill the Cossack, but fails.

In the secular part, we can identify folk and Cossack themes. The folk theme, which is small in size, dedicated to everyday events, peasant ingenuity, and jokes on ethnic issues. 

As the traditional Ukrainian vertep was played out in front of Cossack officers, the Cossack myth about his exploits overshadowed the folk theme.

In the main part of the vertep Cossack appears as a representative of the military caste, who is forgiven for rudeness and anger.  Cossack has important social functions - overcoming social injustice and protection from external and internal enemies.

The victims of the Cossack are representatives of various social and ethnic groups: a Pole (as a traditional enemy of the Ukrainian Cossacks and peasants), a Jew (moneylender and innkeeper), a Uniate priest (brings discord into the unity of Orthodoxy).

The Cossack deals with his enemies surprisingly easily, in the intervals between dancing and drunkenness. Therefore, the vertep performed an important psychotherapeutic function in the treatment of historical injuries.

In order to understand the phenomenon of the avant-garde (the 1910s - 1930s), it is necessary to clarify its relationship with tradition. The avant-garde had two creative methods. 

The first was to destroy the entire artistic heritage and open the way for the creation of completely new art. Supporters of the second promoted a radical reworking of traditions. 

Supporters of the second way promoted a radical reworking of traditions. Only such an approach could allow the creation of new art, avoiding the repetition of old experiences. The second current was more characteristic of Ukraine. 

We are talking, first of all, about Kurbas and Boychukists. It is clear that the field of their interests included a traditional Ukrainian vertep. 

It provides material for new experiments. Les Kurbas was attracted by the opportunity to use the actor as a puppet. This was an important stage in the legitimation of a new theatrical profession - directing.

However, the most significant contribution to the avant-garde rethinking of vertep`s and puppet`s theater in Ukraine was made by the Boychukists, one of whose communities was at the Mezhyhirya Art Ceramic Technical School. 

The artists of Mezhyhirya decided to combine their work with political propaganda, which was demanded by the Soviet authorities.

According to Pavel Gorbenko, one of the founders of the Mezhyhirya vertep, it was possible to reach the masses only through the use of a culture close to the people.

In the Mezhyhirya vertep, the traditional Ukrainian nativity scene has been radically redesigned. First of all, the sacred floor disappears in the vertep`s chest. In addition, puppets become full-fledged works of art, filled with a kind of artistic ideology. 

The puppets were created under the direction of sculptor Yevhen Sagaidachny, who gave them a characteristic Boychukist style. 

In addition, the puppets were as close as possible to the appearance of world politicians of the time. In the grotesque form, puppets also expressed their character.

Socialist Realism (the early 1930s - late 1980s) used the creative energy, symbolic and cultural capital gained by the avant-garde. At the same time, many avant-garde works were destroyed and their creators repressed.

In contrast to the experimental avant-garde, socialist realism has a dogmatic canon based on the idea of ​​portraying life as it should appear to Soviet citizens. Socialist realism was completely subordinated to propaganda. 

Ideological controllers constantly interfered in the creative process. At the same time, the avant-garde сan be in socialist-realist visual culture. This applies to the grotesque puppet theater.

With a propaganda goal - to capture children's minds - puppet theaters have formed a dense network in Ukraine, other republics of the USSR, and socialist countries. Thus, the puppet theater, which initially did not have a children's focus, acquired children's forms.

There were productions for various fairy tales, which were to prepare children to fight external and internal enemies, to social hyperactivity, labor exploits, etc. 

There were also performances for adults, based mainly on entertainment, as well as on political satire directed against the hostile capitalist world.

The influence of ideology on the repertoire led to the deformation of puppet theater. The experiment of artistic creativity was completely rejected, and the connection with tradition was artificially severed. 

Under such conditions, socialist realism could not develop fully and experienced stagnation.

Against this background, a special place is occupied by puppet artists R. Margolinа and O. Shcheglov, directors S. Efremov, V. Afanasyev, Y. Sikalo, and a small circle of their like-minded people. 

In extremely unfavorable conditions, they still managed to create outstanding examples of art.

On the image - a model of the set design for performance The Adventures of Pif of the artist Raisa Margolina. It was staged in the Kyiv Puppet Theater (now - Kyiv Academic Puppet Theater ) in 1968. The director was Yuri Sikalo. 

he model made on an open platform, is an installation, as in the avant-garde or modern set designers. In the foreground - a screen in the form of a press kiosk, pasted with clippings from the newspaper "Humanite" 

(it is from the pages of "Humanite" came one of the most popular children's characters - a dog Pif, the hero of funny comics). Behind the screen is a turntable, behind is an enlarged photo of a Parisian street. Together it makes the multi-layered functional scenery.

At the time of the crisis, stagnation in social realism since the 1940s, there was an appeal to the traditions of the Ukrainian vertep and ethnocultural themes close to it, although with significant ideological limitations. 

In the 1950s and 1960s, the Ukrainian Puppet Theaters staged The Night Before Christmas, Sorochinsky Fair, and The Lost Letter, based on works by M. Gogol. Over time, the Ukrainian traditional repertoire diversified. 

From the end of the 1980s, I. Kotlyarevsky's Aeneid, which resonates with the Cossack theme of the traditional Ukrainian vertep, was also included in the puppet theater's repertoire.

In 1975, in Kharkiv, directors Viktor Afanasyev, Oleksandr Inyutochkin, and artist Oleksiy Shcheglov recreated the Ukrainian vertep.

The restoration of Ukraine's independence has revived the appeal to nativity traditions. However, the Ukrainian puppet theater, having gained freedom, faced difficult challenges. How to develop the theater further?

The director was Sergey Efremov, the artist - Iryna Uvarova. The text of the oldest vertep of Sokyrynci was taken as a basis. The music was also authentic - carols and church singing. The initiator of the play was actor Volodymyr Zavalnyuk, who played in the vertep. 

In the second, secular part, were innovations. The director S. Efremov led into a puppet of the Deputy with two flags in hands: in one - Ukrainian, in the second - red that symbolized treachery characteristic of politicians.

The  mono-play  Everything will be all right at the Kyiv City Puppet Theater (now - the Kyiv Municipal Academic Puppet Theater) was staged in 1994. It based on the diaries of Janusz Korczak.

The play also used excerpts from the works of O. Dryz, L. Ashkenazi, L. Ulitska. The director was SergiyYefremov, the artist - Iryna Uvarova. 

 The main element of the play was a suitcase as a sign of mass displacement and extermination of people by the totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century. This simple suitcase, which stores the owner's belongings in everyday life and accompanies him during travels, turns into a nativity scene in the play.

 The mono-play was created especially for the performance of the talented actor Sharle Foerberg. In the play, he plays the role of the Teacher, who spends the last night before the execution in the concentration camp with the pupils. 

To console the children, he tells the vertep`s story with the puppets. He constructs figures of children-listeners right during the performance - from balls, handkerchiefs, and colored pencils-rods.

Puppet of Angel is made of a children's plastic doll, that placed on a wooden stand.

The colors of the puppets have a symbolic meaning. For example, the red cloak and yellow threads of Satan's beard are associated with the colors on the Soviet Union's pennant.

Among the many stories, Teacher demonstrates an anecdote scene with two puppets: Shlema-neighbor and Madame Ester-Rohl. 

He grotesquely manipulates the facts, equating the death of madame Ester-Rohl`s husband to a large number of good events (all the things of a man preserved ), which are supposed to avert the grief of the women.