Cover not available
Part of
Othello in European Culture
Edited by Elena Bandín Fuertes, Francesca Rayner and Laura Campillo Arnaiz
[Shakespeare in European Culture 3] 2022
► pp. 191–204

Chapter 10
Pulling the strings

Othello, puppet and object theatre

 | Universidad Nacional de Educación a DistanciaMadrid | Instituto del Teatro de Madrid (ITEM)
Othello is a particularly attractive play to examine the connection between Shakespeare and puppets, as Othello is metaphorically manipulated by Iago, who is the one pulling the strings. This chapter turns the metaphor into reality with the study of the connection between Othello and puppet theatre. To do so, the chapter focuses on three productions: Che cosa sono le nuvole (1968), a short film by Pier Paolo Pasolini, O-telo (2011)¸ by the theatre company Viajeinmóvil, and the performance of Othello in the series Complete Works: Table Top Shakespeare (2015), by Forced Entertainment. These productions engage with different European puppet traditions and offer new insights into the play that have contributed to the dissemination of Shakespeare’s Othello throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Keywords: Othello, William Shakespeare, puppetry, object theatre, adaptation, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Viajeinmóvil, Forced Entertainment
Article outline
  • Puppets and Shakespeare across Europe
  • Che cosa sono le nuvole: The actors are the puppets
  • O-telo: The actors and the puppets
  • Table Top Shakespeare: Othello: The objects are the puppets
  • Puppetry and object theatre: Tradition and innovation
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 25 May 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sec.3.10gue
References (22)
References
Allendes, Ana María. 2012. “Chile.” In World Encyclopedia of Puppetry Arts. Accessed January 5, 2020. [URL]
. 2013. “Latin America.” In World Encyclopedia of Puppetry Arts. Accessed January 5, 2020. [URL]
Barasch, Frances K. 2004. “Shakespeare and the Puppet Sphere.” English Literary Renaissance 34 (2): 157–175. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bell, John. 2014. “Introduction.” In The Routledge Companion to Puppetry and Material Performance, edited by Dassia N. Posner, Claudia Orenstein and John Bell, 7–10. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Cavanagh, Sheila T. 2007. “Tragic Humor: The Puppets Take Macbeth.” In Staging Shakespeare: Essays in Honor of Alan C. Dessen, edited by Lena Cowen Orlin and Miranda Johnson-Haddad, 227–243. Newark, DE: University of Delaware Press.Google Scholar
Craig, Edward Gordon. (1907) 1996. “The Actor and the Übermarionette.” Reprinted in The Twentieth Century Performance Reader, edited by Michael Huxley and Noel Witts, 144–165. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Foley, Kathy. 2014. “Object Theatre.” In World Encyclopedia of Puppetry Arts. Accessed January 10, 2020. [URL]
Grazioli, Cristina, et al.. 2012. “Puppet.” In World Encyclopedia of Puppetry Arts. Accessed January 5, 2020. [URL]
Jurkowski, Henryk. 1996. A History of European Puppetry from its Origins to the 19th Century. Lewinston, NY: Edwin Mellen.Google Scholar
. 2014. Aspects of Puppet Theatre. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Lanier, Douglas. 2002. Shakespeare and Modern Popular Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Massai, Sonia. 2005. “Subjection and Redemption in Pasolini’s Othello.” In World-Wide Shakespeares: Local Appropriations in Film and Performance, edited by Sonia Massai, 95–103. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Morse, Lisa. 2014. “The Saracen of Opera dei Pupi: A Study of Race, Representation, and Identity.” In The Routledge Companion to Puppetry and Material Performance, edited by Dassia N. Posner, Claudia Orenstein and John Bell, 144–153. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Orenstein, Claudia. 2014. “New Dialogues with History and Tradition.” In The Routledge Companion to Puppetry and Material Performance, edited by Dassia N. Posner, Claudia Orenstein, and John Bell, 111–113. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Patrimonio Cultural Inmaterial. “El teatro de marionetas siciliano Opera dei Pupi.” Patrimonio Cultural Inmaterial UNESCO. Accessed December 18, 2019. [URL]
Rutter, Carol Chillington. 2017. “Shakespeare for Dummies. Or, ‘See the Puppets Dallying.’” In The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Performance, edited by James C. Bulman, 64–86. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Shershow, Scott Cutler. 1995. Puppets and “Popular” Culture. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Speaight, George. 1955. The History of the English Puppet. London: George G. Harrap & Co.Google Scholar
Stern, Tiffany. 2013. “‘If I Could See the Puppets Dallying’: Der Bestrafte Brudermord and Hamlet’s Encounters with the Puppets.” Shakespeare Bulletin 31 (3): 337–352. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vighi, Fabio, and Alexis Nouss. 2010. “In the Clouds: A Dialogue.” In Pasolini, Fassbinder and Europe. Between Utopia and Nihilism, edited by Fabio Vighi and Alexis Nouss, 177–192. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar
Violette, Marcel. 2010. “Tabletop Puppetry.” In World Encyclopedia of Puppetry Arts. Accessed January 10, 2020. [URL]
Young, Susan. 1996. Shakespeare Manipulated. The Use of the Dramatic Works of Shakespeare in teatro di figura in Italy. London: Associated University Presses.Google Scholar