For this collaborative project titled “Travelling Tales”, we have been asked to create a puppet(s) based on a piece of text. Our group chose The Tempest and focused on one aspect of the play where there are two drunk guards having nightmares about a bull. Instead of just copying the text exactly, we chose to deviate from the original source and create our own adaptation to bring more impact to this part of the story.
In our adaptation, Ariel tells a story about a storm brewing and how the bull (our main puppet) is afraid of it. The two drunk guards, a jester and a monkey tease the bull and make fun of him for being afraid of the storm when a creature of his size is so strong and powerful. The reason the two guards aren’t afraid is because of the fruit that made them drunk, and so they offer it to the bull to calm his nerves.
While the centrepiece of the performance is a large bull puppet, measuring approximately 3 metres tall and 2 metres wide, that we will perform with, elements of the story will be told with shadow puppetry and there will also be some members of the group acting as some of the characters in the story to help guide the audience as events unfold.