Humour in puppetry

From 10 to 12 March 2023, the Goetheanum will host the conference ‘Imagery and Humour as Creative Forces in Puppetry’.

‘Is humour a human organ located somewhere between the liver and the tear gland, very close to its adjacent organ, imagination?’ Franz Hohler asks in a contribution to a book on humour (1995). Or can we describe humour as a way of looking at the finite from the point of view of the infinite? Humour is certainly something essentially human. It liberates, redeems, lets us breathe again, connects us, lifts us above ourselves.

The fluidity of soul, the flowing mobility, which characterizes humour brings opposites together. When we laugh, we experience movement, width and buoyancy; and laughing together can make us feel closer to one another and be therefore healing, both individually and socially.

In puppetry and imagery, with the diverse possibilities they offer due to different kinds of puppets and different modes of presentation, humour can unfold in unique ways.

Reduction to what is essential and overdrawing are very well suited to conveying humour in dramatic expression, gesture and characterization.

Lectures and work groups will deepen the topic of humour within the context of imaginative presentation and puppetry.

Puppetry Group of the Section for the Performing Arts: Stefan Hasler, Claudia Kissling, Hanna Koskinen, Stefan Libardi, Monika Lüthi, Stéphanie Troehler

Puppetry Conference at the Goetheanum 10 to 12 March 2023 (in German)