BERLIN — Puppet theater — the term brings to mind the famous marionette theater in Augsburg, chaotic Punch and Judy shows, and raucous children. But whether it is performed with marionettes or hand puppets, puppet theater has now established itself as a serious art form that is aimed at adults as much as children. Nikolaus Habjan and Neville Tranter are leading lights in the world of puppet theater, and their new show at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin is causing a sensation.
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Tranter, born in Australia in 1955, had his first taste of success in the late 1970s, using puppets to explore serious subject matter onstage. Embracing the work of Shakespeare and Molière, and themes such as Hitler’s last days in his bunker, Tranter toured the world with the life-size puppets he had created himself, performing at major theaters and renowned festivals. And he gave workshops, in which participants learned how to make puppets.
Nikolaus Habjan, born in Graz, Austria, in 1987, attended one of Tranter’s workshops at the age of 14. He had to get special permission, because the courses were actually for adults. Habjan had been interested in puppets since he was a young child. Not marionettes, which are on strings, but hand puppets, which are operated by placing a hand inside the puppet’s head so that you can open and close the mouth — like the Muppets.
Habjan is now 36 years old and — like Tranter — a globally renowned star puppeteer. He is also a singer and whistling artist, and recently performed a concert at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. Now Tranter and Habjan are taking to the stage together with The Hills Are Alive, which first premiered at the Schauspielhaus in Graz in 2019, and has now come to the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, under new director Iris Laufenberg.
The magic of puppets
The Hills Are Alive demonstrates everything that makes puppetry so wonderful. What we see on stage is so eccentric, funny, grotesque, naughty, fantastical and infectious that the audience quickly forgets they are only watching puppets. And what does that mean, “only”? These puppets are a pleasure to watch, with exaggerated, caricature-like features, showing a fastidious attention to detail.
There is something magical in the way Tranter and Habjan bring their puppets to life, how they imbue these inanimate objects with a soul, in the non-religious sense. It feels like their big round eyes can truly see the audience, although as modern, 21st-century people who have no time for superstition, we know that is impossible. The illusion of theater is rendered even more magical with puppets than with human actors. They were a source of fascination for Goethe, who had his own puppet theater as a child.
In their own way, puppets can illuminate what it means to be human.
This fascination is shared by the audience. There is a rare energy in the room, with the audience getting worked up and chatting, often breaking into spontaneous applause. It is astonishing how much empathy a couple of puppets can inspire. The skills on show are so impressive, you almost forget the plot. Max and Maria von Trüb left Austria 50 years ago, fleeing the Nazis, and now they want to return home — but in doing so, they come up against a border official who is the son of a former Nazi.
The official sits behind his desk, flanked by two Austrian flags, with a panorama of the Alps behind him. Chuckling contentedly to himself, Frickl — the character’s name, Norbert Frickl, is reminiscent of the far-right Freedom Party of Austria politician Herbert Kickl — adds his official stamp to the forms in front of him.
A parody with surprise characters
The Hills Are Alive is a grotesque parody of the iconic 1965 Hollywood musical The Sound of Music, which portrayed a kitschy view of Austria based on mountaintops and Edelweiss. The musical is not very well-known in the German-speaking world, but it still brings a flood of foreign tourists to Salzburg every year.
The 90-minute show is in English, like the Hollywood film, and the famous line from its opening song, “The Hills Are Alive,” not only serves as its title but is also — in a somewhat ironic tone — quoted multiple times by the chirpy Maria von Trüb, although her remarks are not always well received by her grouchy husband. On their return to Austria and during their struggle with Frickl, other characters that appear include a French nanny, an effusive billy goat and even Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator. And why not? Everything is possible in the world of puppet theater.
But more than the slightly involved plot, it is the puppets that sticks in the audience’s mind, the fast-paced slapstick and the unbridled joy of the performance. It is a journey into the heart of theater, where inanimate objects are brought to life, so that in their own way they can illuminate what it means to be human. The sight of the puppets dancing is worthy of the large stage at the Deutsches Theater.
The most beautiful thing about puppet theater is that it does not have to look realistic, but can draw on exaggeration and fantasy to tell its stories. That is what makes it magical — and it is actually anything but unrealistic. In the work of Tranter and Habjan — and Suse Wächter, whose play Brecht’s Ghosts is being staged at the Berliner Ensemble — we can discover the unbelievable, wonderful world of puppets, and the childlike joy that theater can awaken inside every adult.
