Sleeping Beauty by Carlo Colla & Sons Marionette Company from Milan, Italy.
It is interesting to try to explain why this production is so touchingly beautiful. The marionettes are each a study in fine craftsmanship, and the manipulation by the Italian company is intricate and masterful. And yet - what conveys is the fragility of it all and, perhaps as a reflection, the fragility of all humans too.
The puppets still move like real marionettes and not like the smooth-action cartoons we've become familiar with in movies and TV. Real marionettes often move with jerking little stabs, their dances awkward in spite of their characters' glamour and grace.
The ancient fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty still conveys the feeling of "life's joys threatened by Misery." Children might watch this production focusing on princess and prince, a destiny of romantic love and marriage. But I feel certain that the myth has sustained itself through the ages because of the anguish felt by parents: the natural fear for the safety of their child when young, the disruption of youthful joys by puberty, the hopeless anguish when illness or death of a child must be accepted.
Combining these thoughts with the fragile marionettes made my experience of this Sleeping Beauty a profoundly deep one. I could have cried, leaving the theater, except for the joyous ending that the fairy tale version demands.
About the company:
The marionette company Carlo Colla and Sons is one of the best known companies in the world, with nearly three centuries of activity and has been Teatro Stabile of Puppets (1906-1957) Gerolamo Theatre in Piazza Beccaria in Milan. Today, his shows are appreciated throughout the world by an audience of adults and young people, on the occasion of the most important national and international events. (http://www.marionettecolla.org/)
