Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

provided by

This black-and-white clip features a filmed marionette production of Cinderella with piano accompaniment performed by an Australian marionette company in the 1940s. A male narrator and rotating cut-out scenes of a storybook version of Cinderella introduce the marionette production. A female narrator tells the story as the marionettes perform. Stage lighting, elaborate sets and stop-frame film techniques contribute to the drama of the filmed production. The marionette operators are shown and close-ups reveal the puppets’ elaborate costumes.

Educational value points

• This clip provides an insight into the style and techniques of marionette puppetry as used in Australia in the 1940s. Marionettes, or string puppets, appear on a stage in costumes with sets to act out a story. Operators, who may be seen or may be hidden from view, control the actions of the puppets from above. The operators normally provide voices for the characters as they manipulate the puppets, but in this clip a narrator supplies the voices.

• The design of marionette puppets is unlike other puppets as they are usually made of wood and jointed for movement with key points on their bodies attached to strings. A manipulator above the stage controls their actions through the strings, which are attached to a wooden cross device for control. The relatively simple marionettes shown in the clip have about ten strings. By adding strings, more sensitive and lifelike movements are possible.

• Marionette theatres of the type shown, rather than fairground booths, emerged in 19th-century Europe, imitating the increasingly elaborate ‘realism’ of live theatre at that time. The story of Cinderella seen here includes lifelike sets, props and costumes. The sets use design conventions from live theatre but on a miniature scale. Cinderella’s kitchen, for example, contains furniture and ornaments. The marionettes also wear elaborately decorated costumes suitable for a royal ball.

• Even as viewers are drawn into the story, they are given insight into the craft of marionette theatre. The narrator both tells the story and draws attention to the fact that the protagonists are marionettes. Footage of the marionette operators, close-ups of the dolls, editing, camera angles and stop-frame filming (when Cinderella’s rags turn into a ballgown) are all used to create the sense of being both behind the scenes and within the world of the story.

• This marionette production was performed at a time when puppetry was being established as a serious art form in Australia. In 1945 W D Nicol (1907–78) led a group of enthusiasts to form the Puppet Guild of Australia. Their 'Littlest Theatre’ became the centre of puppetry in Melbourne. Nicol’s student Peter Scriven (1930–98) created the marionette musical Tintookies, which toured all over Australia in the 1950s. Scriven was instrumental in founding the Marionette Theatre of Australia in 1965.

• In producing a documentary such as this one, the Australian National Film Board was fulfilling the function for which it was established – the production of films illustrating aspects of Australian life for Australian and international audiences. This film showcases the skill and artistry of Australia’s marionette theatre, when puppetry was a developing field in the nation’s artistic life. The Board became the Commonwealth Film Unit in 1956, and later Screen Australia.