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 Generations of Britons have flocked to puppet booths to watch
the irascible, hook-nosed Mr Punch whack long-suffering wife
Judy with his "slap stick", drop their baby repeatedly and
tangle with a grumpy policeman, a crocodile and a hangman.
The anarchic humor remains as central as ever to the Punch and
Judy experience, say the puppet-masters, traditionally known as
"professors", but some elements have had to be toned down or are
often omitted now.
"Today's public has a different point of view than an audience
100 years ago, so you have to take traditional themes and play
them in a way that works for a contemporary audience," said Glyn
Edwards, who performs shows in the southern English seaside town
of Brighton.
One thing that has changed is treatment of the baby. In past
ages, when families were large and child mortality high, people
could more easily laugh at the scenes of slapstick cruelty, not
least to relieve the pain of knowing kids died all the time.
"Today children are wrapped in cotton wool ... Anyone doing
anything that might be understood as being harmful to a child is
an incredibly sensitive area. You have to find a way of making
Punch and Judy and their baby seen as clown comedy. They are not
real people, they are clowns and a prop," said Edwards.
Judy has more of a say in today's shows, a bossy bureaucrat from
the local council might take the place of the traditional
'beadle' character and the hanging scene - harking back to a
time when criminals were publicly executed - is often omitted.
The interactiveness of a Punch and Judy show can come as an
enjoyable surprise to kids used to passively watching their
television or computer screen, said 'professor' John Styles.
SLAPSTICK REBEL
"It's a show very much about audience participation. I think
that's a major secret of why it has survived," said Styles, who
has performed for the Beatles and for the late Princess Diana
and her sons Princes William and Harry.
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"For the children there is a lot of slapstick. Punch is like a
mischievous child and I think kids identify themselves with him
doing the same silly things."
For adults, Styles added, the appeal of Punch is that of the eternal
rebel who is forever falling foul of authority.
"When you're just coming back to your car and the traffic warden is
about to put the ticket on and you are saying, 'No, I am going now!'
and he still says, 'No, you are too late', Punch would hit him, you
would feel a lot better. The audience watching Punch deal with
authority like that, that's its appeal," Styles said.
For a form of entertainment with roots in masked Italian theater of
the 16th century (commedia del'arte) and described as long ago as
1662 by English diarist Samuel Pepys, Punch and Judy has proven
historically resilient but its future is less clear.
The number of booths has fallen sharply with the decline of the
traditional British seaside resort as many Britons prefer to holiday
abroad these days, though Punch and Judy shows can also be found in
London and other big cities far from the sea.
"The generations coming up will take Mr Punch and will fit him to
their society," said Edwards.
"Professor" Styles was less confident.
"Will something suddenly come out of the woodwork, some aspect for
some reason something is no longer acceptable? I don’t know what
that thing might be but that could just about put a lid on it," he
said.
(Writing by Michael Roddy; Editing by Gareth Jones)
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