THE MARIONETTE MAN
This translation faithfully follows the text of The Marionette Man, published by Yuan-Liou Publishing Co., Ltd. in Collection of Jin Shi-Jye’s Plays as No. I, copyright 2003, Taiwan. All Rights Reserved.
Translated by Mori and put online with permission of the playwright.
The Characters:
The old manipulator
Old marionette
Child marionette
Male marionette
Female marionette
Big marionette
Small marionette
Left marionette
Right marionette
Playwright’s Notes:
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This play is presented as a mime. Since the story takes place on a small traditional stage, actors’ makeup can be whiteface with features of redesigned Peking Opera mask patterns. Small props such as strings, knife, erhu* and walking stick can be portrayed by miming.
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Because there are no spoken words, the script only describes relatively important happenings. Too detailed actions cannot be taken care of.
*An erhu is a two-stringed Chinese traditional musical instrument which is played with a bow and has very nasal sound quality.
1.
Darkness. The cracked, outworn sound of erhu is heard. Intermittent. Plaintive….
Dim light goes up, revealing a small stage: a simple wooden framework draped with a worn-out curtain. The old marionette is sitting on the stage, playing erhu, like an old animal dragging a cart. He looks feeble, as if he was exhausted. Suddenly, a string breaks. He freezes, but resumes playing after a while. Suddenly, the other string breaks, too. Dejected, he puts down the instrument, stands up, and begins to walk about the stage. His pace is languid, his back crooked. From time to time he strokes his hoary beard, his weathered face and his rigid spine; subsequently, he covers his face and weeps….
The curtain flings open; there stands an old man in modern clothing: the proprietor of the marionette theater. His has a striking resemblance to the old marionette. His pulling of an invisible string, simultaneous with the marionette’s sad tremble, suggests that he is the manipulator. He stops the marionette, walks towards it inspects it. They look at each other, their posture identical, as if looking at their own reflections in a mirror. The old manipulator cannot bear to look at it. He turns away.
The old manipulator takes the strings again and makes the old marionette walk towards him. He pulls the string with one hand and holds the old marionette’s hand with the other. They begin to wrestle, with all their might, still looking so strikingly alike as if they were the same person. Finally, the old manipulator wins. He swings his arm and the old marionette falls to the floor. He looks at it with contempt.
Still indignant, he sits down panting until he begins to doze off. In his sleep, he dreams a dream….
A stream of dim light appears off stage. A peculiar scene: six young marionettes are dance to the lively, soul-awakening music, surrounding a man on the ground covered with multicolored fabric. They dance like ecstatic revelers in a wild festival; there is a quivering joy in their disorderliness. Despite the slight clumsiness of their movements, their faces are lit up by youthful smiles, naïve smiles…. After a while, the light dims. Music fades.
The manipulator wakes up, recollecting and pondering on his quaint dream. Hope emerges on his aged face. He looks all inspired, pacing around outlining in midair the shapes of the young marionettes in his dream. Joyful music of the dream is heard again along with sounds of wood-sawing and hammering. He rolls up his sleeves, ready for the great task. Lights fade out.
Music proceeds in the dark.
2-1
Lights up. Seven young marionettes are on stage, some sitting and some standing, motionless. They are identical to the marionettes in the old manipulator’s dream. The manipulator is overjoyed. He wipes his forehead and adjusts the marionettes’ postures. Then he moves the defeated old marionette into the middle of them.
Now there are eight marionettes in total. The old manipulator exits, as if having some interesting plan for them.
The marionettes remain quiet and still. Then, subtly, one of them slowly moves its head; another one moves its arm, others start to move their waist, leg, knee, elbow, etc., as if attempting to stand up straight. When they are about to reach their ideal positions, they collapse, as if something is missing. All become inanimate again.
The old manipulator returns with a bundle of strings, surprised to see them all on the floor. He begins to bind them. After he finishes, he goes to the small stage and makes a violent jerk. All eight marionettes spring up, swaying slightly.
2-2
The old manipulator pulls the strings; the marionettes sway and move. He stops; they stop. Satisfied, he joyously goes behind the curtain.
Cadent, light-hearted music. The marionettes begin their movements in accordance with the rhythm. Their movements are gradually developed as following:
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First, slight, disorderly, meaningless movements.
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Gradually, their movements become unified, but still meaningless.
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Then they start to fall into two lines, men in one and women in the other. They display movements of basic differences between genders: different ways of posing, standing, walking, etc. (like the symbolic movements of different genders in traditional Chinese opera).
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Then they perform the prehistoric gender roles: The men hunt, plow, do weapon practice, etc. The women weave, breastfeed, cook, adorn themselves etc. Then all marionettes tremble together with silent laughter, and then, with tears.
Music stops abruptly; the marionettes stop. The old manipulator walks out from the curtain. Some strings are tangled. He unravels them, and then returns behind the scene. Music resumes.
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The marionettes are divided into four pairs: the male marionette vs. the female marionette, the old marionette vs. the child marionette, the identical left marionette vs. right marionette, and the big marionette vs. the small marionette. They repeat the following simple movements over and over again:
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Male vs. Female: the Male marionette makes the “heart” gesture with his hand. The female marionette is abashed. The male marionette gets down on his knee to woo. The female marionette is happy. They hug.
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Old vs. Child: (The old marionette uses a walking stick. The child marionette wears doll makeup.) The old marionette dodders. The child marionette plays. The old marionette raises his walking stick to discipline the child marionette, who hurriedly works on his study. The old marionette stumbles. The child marionette supports him.
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Left vs. Right: The left marionette and the right marionette are conjoint by their hands. They use their free hands to try to separate with each other, to no avail. They pant. They hug, smiling.
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Big vs. Small: The big marionette, being the tallest, strikes a flaunting pose. The small marionette (the shortest) tries to imitate him. The big marionette flings the small marionette away and punches him. The small marionette cringes smaller.
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First, the four pairs take turns performing. And then they perform simultaneously. Suddenly, they hear the music change. They fall into one line, walk briskly forward, starts to run in a circle, and then stop, facing forward. Music stops.
The curtain flings open again. The old manipulator joyously comes out with many colorful costumes. He places one in front of each, but seems to be partial to the big marionette. He puts on the costume for him, and then satisfactorily gazes at his beautiful work. He goes behind the curtain again happily.
The remaining marionettes slowly pick up their own costumes and put them on. Lights fade.
2-3
Lighting becomes dramatic. A gong strike. A play within a play opens.
The old (marionette) chief of the tribe is worshipped by seven other tribesmen (the other marionettes). All tribesmen are in shackles. They stand in a line, following the chief’s orders. With orderliness, they study, write and bow to the chief. The chief gives another order; the tribesmen voluntarily put on their shackles and worship the chief. However, the big marionette refuses to do the worship. The chief raises his walking stick to reprimand him. The big marionette, however, breaks free from his shackles. Frightened, the old chief commands them more eagerly to worship him….
The big marionette approaches the chief. They begin to wrestle – a scene similar to the wrestle in scene one. Before long, the old marionette/chief falls down defeated.
The big marionette stands on the steps of the stage, flaunting. He gestures the crowd to take off their shackles. While the tribesmen do so and cheer, the big marionette raises his hand in midair, pulling an invisible string: all the tribesmen lift up their hands and the curtain flings open. The old manipulator triumphantly stands behind the big marionette, their movements identical: pulling strings, making the tribesmen worship, and worship, and worship….
The old chief lies unbudgingly on the ground.
3
Night. Quiet. Restful. The marionettes are standing or sitting off stage. Some bend their heads, resting. The old marionette is still cast aside, alone.
A stream of light appears. Small, fine music. The marionettes’ dream.
In their dream they are human-like and well-balanced, with fine physique. The male marionette and the female marionette gaze at each other, smiling a dim, tender smile. The male marionette reaches out to hold the female marionette’s hand. Before their hands touch, lights go out. The dream ends.
Night again. All is quiet.
The old manipulator enters. He moves some marionettes into their proper position and then walks towards the old marionette. He carries it on his shoulder and walks out.
The curious male marionette timidly, stealthily follows for a peek. The sound of burning firewood is heard; reddish light can be seen from off stage. The old marionette is standing on a small pyre blazing with flames. The old manipulator feeds the fire. Seeing it burning steadily, he leaves. The old marionette’s body begins to tremble and shrivel. Puzzled, the male marionette reaches out to touch the fire – terribly shocked, he withdraws his hand. He rushes to other marionettes, shakes them violently, trying to wake them up. He points to where the old marionette was burnt. But until other marionettes are willing to look, the burning place has disappeared. Suddenly, the marionettes hear something. They return to their original position and freeze.
The old manipulator enters again to inspect the marionettes, but the male marionette is hiding himself on the other side of the stage, undiscovered. The manipulator pulls the strings to manipulate the remaining marionettes into sleeping positions and then leaves. The male marionette saw the secret with his eyes wide open – the secret of the strings.
The male marionette moves stealthily to the small stage. He looks around, makes sure nobody’s looking, and starts to pull the strings. The marionettes begin to swing. He accelerates the pull; the marionettes bounce and shake vehemently. Frightened, he throws the strings away.
The big marionette is waked by the violent jerks. He discovers that the male marionette is playing with the strings. Intrigued, he wants to play, too. They begin to fight for the strings. Tug of war. The strings get tangled. The male marionette falls. The big marionette takes this chance to take a string and makes a jerk – the male marionette is lifted up. The big marionette keeps pulling; the male marionette shakes helplessly. Suddenly, the big marionette hears something. He stops playing and returns to his proper position.
The old manipulator enters and sees this scene: that the male marionette, unaware of the manipulator’s entrance, tries to bite off the strings. The old manipulator is enraged. But he keeps quiet. He goes softly to the small stage and hides himself, drawing up the curtain.
4
All lights dim except from the small area where the male marionette stands: a lonely battle.
The male marionette still attempts to bite off the strings, but fails. He ponders, trying to come up with a better solution. Strangely, one of his arms is lifted up. He presses it down with another hand. It is lifted up again. He presses it down angrily. Then again, it is lifted up faster; he presses faster, too. The harder he suppresses it, the more violently it is lifted up. Then, the other arm is lifted up, too, and then his shoulders, etc. He decides to fight. He uses both of his hands to grab the string behind his back and tries to pull it down. But it only raises him up higher. He realizes that he is being deliberately tortured. He struggles desperately. He is swung left, and right, as if the manipulator is omnipresent. The male marionette pulls, madly, with all his might.
Abruptly, the manipulator releases all the strings. The male marionette falls heavily to the ground. He is astonished. But when he touches his arms, his neck…the strings are gone! Gone! He beams with joy for his liberation, struggles, stands up and tries to stagger forward: one step, two steps…. But without the strings, he totters, stumbles, and falls. He lies on the ground, still striving to move; however, his stirring becomes weaker and weaker, until he is completely still.
Lights fade to darkness.
5
Lights up. The curtain of the small stage is closed. The male marionette’s body lies aside.
The big marionette stands majestically on the steps of the small stage. Other marionettes worship him. The big marionette points to where the male marionette is lying. The worshippers obey and go to the body, lift it up together and walk towards the big marionette. The big marionette makes a triumphant gesture, and then all movements stop.
The curtain flings open. The old manipulator is behind all this, pulling strings with one hand, making the same triumphant gesture with the big marionette. Then the manipulator resumes pulling; the marionettes walk towards him and place the male marionette’s body on his shoulder. The marionettes stop. The old manipulator exits, carrying the body.
The marionettes come to life again; they slowly turn and look towards where the manipulator left. And then they look at one another; worries begin to cloud over their faces. The female marionette begins to weep. The small marionette tries to comfort her, imitating the male marionette’s movements of courtship. But it only makes her sadder. She starts to cry in earnest. Some other marionettes weep, too, but soon, they begin to help and comfort each other: they begin to have compassion and sympathy….
The old manipulator returns, horrified upon seeing such scene: a blatant revolt! Without the least hesitation, he pulls the strings to suspend all the marionettes – except the big marionette, who is quick enough to hide himself.
The troubled old manipulator paces up and down, trying to come up with a plan. The big marionette stealthily goes to the small stage and starts pulling the strings.
The old manipulator turns and sees. Infuriated, he dashes forward, trying to seize the big marionette. The big marionette pulls the strings and makes the remaining marionettes set a wall to defend him. At length, the old manipulator breaks their defense. The big marionette runs away while the other marionettes continue to close in on the old manipulator: this time, nobody is pulling the strings. Their rebel is an act on their own initiative. The old manipulator, frightened, begins to withdraw. But suddenly, he steals an interval, dashes to the small stage, seizes all of the strings, takes out a knife resentfully, and then swish! All marionettes fall to the ground.
Still in rage, the old manipulator goes off and then returns with the wooden pyre.
The marionettes lying behind his back begin to stir. The big marionette, the hardiest of all, stands up first. Others stand up, too, one by one, shakily.
Without looking up, the old manipulator squats down dejectedly, slowly lighting the fire.
The big marionette takes the lead. They pick up the strings that used to bind them and begin to stalk the old man.
Together, they tie their strings around his neck. He struggles desperately; but the marionettes only pull harder. After a hard fight, the old manipulator’s struggle weakens and eventually stops. He breathes his last breath; his head droops; until he becomes completely still.
The marionettes stand together behind him; their faces lit up. A celebration of their rebirth commences. They take off their colorful costumes and throw them one by one onto the body of the old manipulator, covering his head, shoulder and finally his entire body. Joyful music. They dance happily, encircling the body, like ecstatic revelers in a wild festival. But things begin to change: they seem unable to support themselves, and there are no strings to connect them. One by one, they begin to bend downward. Consequently, their movements become funny and clumsy: the scene is exactly identical to the old manipulator’s dream in the first scene, but the old man did not realize that what was covered in the middle by colorful fabrics was his own body. Lights begin to dim. The marionettes’ faces are still lit up by blooming smiles, youthful smiles, naïve smiles…. Lights fade out.