Italian puppet theatre artists Valeria Bianchi and Angela Malvasi won the hearts of spectators at their first puppet performance in India held at The Heritage School on Wednesday.
Putting life into table puppets with their evocative sounds and gestures, the duo presented an entertaining show called 'Nonso and Nonsa', meaning 'I don't know'. The story of this naive couple as they explore life together with their artlessness, it explored the theme of love in a script interlaced with humour. Mr Nonso, Mrs. Nonso and the Macho Man were the three characters in the show, all paper puppets with amusing expressions and costumes.They live in a world of antiques objects and they try to understand how the existence works.
Displaying a high level of synchronization, the artists set the tempo high with their skilled movements and animated expressions. The story began with Nonso proposing to the love of his life, the acceptance and the their marriage. The second scene then shifted to their honeymoon, a trip to various places well depicted with the use of handmade visuals.
This scene highlighted the human emotion of jealousy in love, with the entry of a rival, the popular 'Macho Man' who pushes Nonso to the edge with envy. Driven to despair and self-doubt, Nonso challenges Macho Man as to who is the more powerful of the two and gets beaten.
A dejected and defeated Nonso then writes an emotional letter to his wife declaring his matchless love for her and hoping that she would stay happy with Macho Man. But a twist is thrown in when Mrs. Nonso, who was so far oblivious to this insecurity of her husband confesses that she only loves Nonso and wants to be loved only by him.
The love-struck couple then return to their home, time passes by and its Christmas. This was the last scene of the hour long puppet theatre show that created a gleeful picture of the festival as the naive couple happily decorates the Xmas tree together. Full of comical scenes of innocent naughtiness that they both indulge in, it received powerful applause from the audience. In the end, love and joy emerge as the quintessential themes of life leaving a lingering
mirthful sentiment among
children and adults alike.
Be it their floating movement, the incessant rant of the angry Nonso and Nonsa, the loud snores or the sorrowful crying, the Italian artists became one with the characters as they created the background sounds. One could also find subtle underpinnings of Italian culture in the presentation though it was in its entirety an attempt in modern puppetry.
Accompanied by music and punctuated by explanatory signs, the show has been presented widely including the exhibition "ArteInStrada" and “StreetArt Festival” of Rome (2010-11), "Milano Clown Festival 2010", “Capodanno dei Bambini di Roma” (1st January 2012), “Carnevale Romano 2012”, “la luna è azzurra”, “Incanti e Banchi” among others.
In Uttarakhand, the puppet play will be staged in Dehradun, Mussoorie, Rishikesh and Haridwar over the next four days. The artists received a thunderous applause from the audience as thrilled children vied to get a chance to manipulate the puppets. An interesting interaction with the audience followed the show in which Bianchi and Malvasi outlined the technique of
making and manoeuvring puppets. Bhupinder Gill, Principal of The Heritage School, said: "Puppets are an excellent medium of delighting and engaging children in creativity and education. Today's show was a unique opportunity for the children to watch
international puppetry and I am very happy that it has
really excited them. Puppetry as an art form must be developed as it can encourage even the most shy of individuals to come forward."