The Lion King Aha Moment

So I guess a aha moment is difficult to explain in under a minute. Let me try to explain with a little bit more details.

On Friday 13th, I went to Tunbridge Wells 2nd Puppetry Festival who had organised a professional meeting. We had a very interesting chat about puppetry being recognised as an art form an all that. Penny Francis, great advocate of puppetry in Britain was there, I met interesting practitioners, all good, what you would expect from this sort of meeting. But this is not what I want to share with you.

There was also a master class about the making of the Lion King, and one thing that was said, unexpectedly resonated me. The speaker explained that Julie Taymor wanted to show the “stage craft” and not try to hide the puppeteer to show the humanity behind the animals. Now, I’ve always been a big fan of showing the ‘stage craft’, the puppeteer, the strings, the ropes, the machinery. Even with more traditional theatre, I like when we see the change of set, rather than: black out and then ta-dah, we’re in a new place. But I never really asked myself why. I just thought I liked the aesthetic.

And when she said that, the penny dropped! I suddenly realised why I like that aesthetic. It’s because I like to emphasize that theatre is a metaphor. I like to underline it. Me too, I like to show the humanity, even if the characters are not animals. I like to highlight that we are talking about people and the world here.

So an afternoon well spent I would say. Thanks Tunbridge Wells Puppetry Festival for creating the time and space to allow these reflections.