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The creation story
‘Bags, a trolley, an old ball...Elsa, a poor, homeless street woman, has the story of the world in a tattered bag’
Puppet theatre is an art form with a reputation for predictability. Conversely, its aptitude for improvisation, using shadows and music, video, installations and performance art has given it a new relevance and a growing popularity across wide swaths of the social strata in most countries.
The traditional string-puppets in Pakistan largely depict stories from the darbar of Akbar, the great Mughal ruler. Characters as diverse as commander Patay Khan, a singing girl, an elephant and a crocodile, to name a few, usually complete the pageantry. A modern puppet theatre, though, is not just about human characters made from wood, stuffed with cotton wool.
As was evident recently at the puppet theatre play staged by Anne-Kathrin Klatt – ‘for people from eight years on’ – even a plastic bag can be brought to life. Anne and Michael Miensopust from Germany brought Elsa’s Creation to Karachi for a single performance, before taking it to Lahore. While Anne is a puppet theatre creator and performer, her husband Michael is an actor and director. Elsa’s Creation is the first play that they have created together.
Anne is somewhat familiar with Karachi, as this is her second visit. She was here in that fateful month of September, 2001, to hold two performances of Carnival of Animals, but her visit to Lahore was cancelled due to the uncertain circumstances in the aftermath of the September 11 incidents.
This time around, a local political party was responsible for the tension that surrounded the show at the PACC Auditorium due to a strike. For fans of theatre who had to travel through Sharea Faisal, Saddar, etc., it was tough, but the reward was more than worth it. Anne said that the duo were proceeding to Lahore the next morning, where Faizaan Peerzada had invited them for a three-week residency at the Peerzada Puppet Museum. Besides conducting three workshops there, Anne will also be holding two performances of the play.
“Bags, a trolley, an old ball...Elsa, a poor, homeless street woman, has the story of creation of the world in a tattered bag. Collected things turn into earth, sea, animals and…into the masterpiece of all things created — the human being. When the Creator fell asleep, Elsa began to create the first human beings by herself,” the performers began, telling the tale of the vagabond.
Although the play is about the creation of the world, it is not about any religious theory. As Michael put it, the play is about a homeless person, having nothing, but creating something out of that nothingness. All one needs is imagination and creativity and a firm belief in one’s own dignity.
The lithe Anne displayed boundless energy during the performance. She studied puppet theatre for a four-year diploma at Stuttgart’s state university, and has been performing since 1989. She has performed in Austria, France, Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands. On the other hand, when Michael completed studying at an acting school, he was not satisfied with what he had learnt. He then went to Berlin for further studies. He worked for three years making films: short feature films as well as a documentary. His work has taken him to Poland, Russia, Canada and the US. This is his first visit to this part of the world.
Anne and Michael, together with the Goethe Institut’s new director Dr Petra Raymond, were keen to interact with the audience after the performance. Since many in the audiences here, young and old, are not used to a theatre experience, leave alone a symbolic theatre performance which is neither wordy nor takes it upon itself to explain everything, it was interesting to note the kind of questions that surfaced from the audience.
Elsa’s Creation — a play about the dignity of human beings — was staged in co-operation with the Human Rights Education Programme (HREP). The audience comprised students from different schools. It was a pleasure to see, despite the hurdles of traffic jams and roadblocks, students and teachers from far-flung areas such as Orangi Town and Abbas Town also make it to the show.
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