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Nouveau Puppet Show

This week and last, at the Lincoln Center Festival, Yeung Faï, born in the Fujian province of China and now living in France and Hong Kong, presented a show, “Hand Stories,” that was historical, political, deep, sad, and sometimes very funny. It was a puppet show. Yeung Faï is a fifth-generation puppeteer, and in a way that is characteristic, I am told, of the Chinese—in any case, it has long been typical of people in theatre arts, such as ballet and tap, that involve training from childhood—he honors his elders. At the opening of the show, we see, propped up in a row, glove puppets (which go from the fingertips to just past the wrist) representing Yeung’s grandfather, his father, and the father’s oldest son. The show’s secondary puppeteer, a big young Frenchman, Yoann Pencolé, identifies them for us. Then he points across the space to Yeung Faï and, with a bracing lack of sentimentality, tells us that Yeung Faï is the youngest son. We never find out what happened to the oldest son.

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Topics: 
Arts
Keywords: 
Puppet Show