Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Punch & Judy

2018; UNIVERSIDADE DO OESTE DE SANTA CATARINA; Volume: 1; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.5965/2595034701022006084

2595-0347

Glyn Edwards,

Where to begin?Well, last year is as good a place as any.Punch and Judy were named in a newly launched multi-million pound government cultural initiative as being as among the first ten official Icons of England.Whilst some media critics thought it absurd, others welcomed it enthusiastically and Mr. Punch was duly enshrined alongside Stonehenge, the FA Cup, the London red bus and the traditional 'cup of tea' as being something "uniquely important to life in England and the people who live here a and representing something in our culture, history or way of life".These fine words put no money into the pockets of the English puppeteers (known as 'Professors') who perform the traditional Punch and Judy Show -but it gave them a weapon of enormous power to use in their on-going skirmishes with the forces of Political Correctness who claim that it is a performance that encourages wife-beating, child abuse and all manner of other evilsand should thus be banned.At the same time it is also a puppet show regularly being performed at children's birthday parties and at countless local festivities whilst simultaneously being scornfully dismissed by many practitioners of Puppet Theatre who would sooner cut off their own arms than have their work linked in the public mind with Mr. Punch's antics.All these contradictions are at the heart of where the unruly puppet fits in to UK society.He is not part of the cultural establishment, he is a figure from popular culture -one who is truly 'of the people' -and it is they who have kept him alive down the centuries.