Puppets

During the 1890s some anti-apartheid activists were looking for a unique way to communicate their demands for racial equality. Some turned to an ancient method of story-telling: puppetry.

Puns en Doedie – Puppets Against Apartheid was one such show. Puppeteer Gary Friedman began performing on the streets of Cape Town in 1980, as a protest to the South African apartheid regime. He was following the traditions of the 18th century British ‘Punch and Judy’ protest theatre against the monarchy. Puppets became a powerful voice against the South African apartheid regime.

Given the significance of puppetry in South African history, and specifically during the anti-apartheid movement, we thought it would be a great way to depict the re-enactment scenes and to tell the story of this group of amazing people.

We are honored that puppeteer Jill Joubert, a founder of Handspring Puppet Company, has agreed to create puppets for us. Handspring Puppet Company, founded in 1981, was another major player in South African puppet theater. While they began as a children’s puppet theater, some of their most important work was in response to the anti-apartheid movement. Their contribution to the art has continued until today, with their current production of Warhorse at the National Theatre in London.

Joubert is beginning with Helen Suzman. Jill is a master puppet-maker, but she told us that creating the Helen Suzman puppet was a huge undertaking. “Is it possible to put the wholeness and richness of a person into one small figure – especially a person of the stature of Helen Suzman?” To prepare, Jill read Suzman’s memoirs and analyzed photographs. Each photo displayed various facets of Helen’s personality. A big decision Jill had to make was which photo to use. “After making drawings from some of the pictures, I found about three images that I mainly worked with, one being a profile which proved most useful.”

Jill’s next challenge came from creating Suzman’s head, which was eventually created from paper pulp after she realized clay would not allow her the level of detail she was looking for. The face really came alive after adding Helen’s make-up and hair, made of mohair dyed in onion skins.

Joubert created the body from foam rubber and leather joints. After consulting the photos again, she dressed Suzman in a charcoal skirt and a white cotton blouse which was buttoned to her neck – just as Helen used to wear it. Of course, no Helen Suzman puppet would be complete without a string of pearls.

After assembling the various pieces, Joubert made sure to add one more thing that brought the puppet to life: two grey-blue beads that brought the sparkle to Helen’s eyes.

Says Joubert, “A puppet is neither a doll nor a sculpture…[but] a spirit figure with an uncanny sense of life…There is a presence of Helen in the puppet which dictates how it can and can’t be moved or treated… I feel deeply privileged to have gotten to know Helen Suzman through this strangely intimate way of creating a spirit puppet figure of her. I wonder what she would have said about it?”