Sicilian puppet theatre
Historical Background
Sicilian puppet theatre first came to be relatively recently, in the early 1800s. Shows took place in small, humble venues and had an audience of lower-middle class community members (Jacobs 1954, 12). Opera dei Pupi initially emerged as a family-run practice, and still exists today due to a select few dedicated family-businesses after the business faced economic difficulties in the mid-20th century. The Opera dei Pupi traditionally consists of theatrical representations of age-old tales such as medieval literature and old Italian poetry. While shows are based off of written texts, much of the script during performances is improvised by the puppeteers. In puppetry, "all forms of genre and style are historical products based on past voices" (Gross 2001, 106). Knowledge of historical narratives and the age-old tales in which puppet shows were based off of is an important element in establishing authority as a puppeteer. Verbal art and performance carries an aesthetic dimension "that is connected to the specific setting and culture of those participating in the communication (Sims and Stephens 2011, 136). The authority that comes with knowledge of history is granted by community members and fellow puppeteers who come watch performances and have a shared culture and understanding of historic events and texts.
Social Impact
Puppet shows were an important place for social gatherings. Shows took place every night in back alleys for a regular audience of neighbors and community members. Common themes of the Opera dei Pupi include chivalrous heroes, war-filled stages, and a lot of improvised comedy throughout performances. Through retellings of the island’s history and themes of battle and justice, puppeteers were able to “comment indirectly upon the relationships among certain classes of Sicilian society” (Dring 2017, 838). In other words, puppeteers skillfully decontextualized information from their and their audience's shared history and recontextualized it in a manner that reflected contemporary issues of class relationships and social justice. In addition, the way in which puppeteers use language and dictation for characters reaffirms social identity and beliefs (Buonanno 1990, 327). For example, the main protagonist seen in Sicilian puppet shows is the noble knight, who is often expressed through standard Italian and uses polite language. Throughout the narrative, the knight may be banished, have to resort to theft as a means of survival, and fight in many battles against those who banished him (Buonanno 1990, 327). Different stages throughout the knight’s journey are emphasized not only through narration itself, but through changes in language and diction, such as the knight adopting Sicilian dialect during bits of comedy and telling of jokes or acquiring a tougher sounding speech that may resemble the mafioso while committing acts of thievery.
