Daming Prefecture

Introduction

Devised on the spot at the Théâtre Marigny in Paris in 1957, and played without a single spoken line

Daming Prefecture is a signature play of Zhangzhou glove-puppet theatre. In 1957 the China Shadow and Puppet Troupe toured Europe, and at a rehearsal in the Théâtre Marigny in Paris the performers found that the audience could not follow the sung words. The senior puppeteers decided on the spot to drop the dialogue and put the technique first, and the play they devised opened in Paris in May that year. The story comes from the Water Margin: to rescue Lu Junyi, the Liangshan leaders disguise themselves as street entertainers, singers, hunters and lion dancers on the night of the Lantern Festival, fool the gatekeeper and the yamen runners, and slip into the city. There is not one spoken line; the puppets balance jars, spin plates, shoot arrows and twirl silk. The play went on to win gold awards at international puppet festivals in Romania and in what is now the Czech Republic, and toured the United States, Britain and other countries. At the Spring Festival of 2024 the Zhangzhou troupe brought it back to the Marigny.

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