Pupi!

Our first friday in Sicily we took a trip to the city of Acireale to view a performance of Sicilian marionettes, called "pupi". There are two different schools of pupi performance, centered in Catania and in Palermo. The pupi theater at Acireale is in the style of Catania.

The Catania pupi are larger then the Palermo Pupi, and have less mobility in the joints. Because of their large size and weight they must be operated from above, much like other types of marionettes. However the pupi are manipulated by iron poles, instead of strings, and the operators stomp their feet for emphasis of the puppets movements. Because the knees of this type of pupi do not bend, they seem to move about in lurching movements. However because of the skill of the puppeteers even this seeming impediment becomes a graceful and surprisingly lifelike action. The pupi lunge on stage and smash their swords against their shields and do fearsome battle against their foes.

The pupi theater depicts the stories of Charlemagne and some of his knights, or paladins, namely Renauldo and Orlando. The paladins fight against arab enemies, giants, and dragons, all in the name of their king and their god. I found these action sequences most interesting because I can only imagine the difficulty of manipulating these heavy (wood and iron) puppets.

Renauldo and his paladins are eventually betrayed, bringing the story to a tragic end. However the heroism and valor of the paladins makes it easy to see why this tradition has persisted and remained popular. Though the performance we saw centered on this betrayal and ultimate defeat, there are many other stories which can be acted out in the pupi theaters.

I would look forward to the opportunity to see a pupi performance in the Palermo style; where the legs and arms are jointed, the swords can be sheathed, and the lighter, smaller pupi are manipulated from the side of the stage rather then above it.