'This is not just another puppet show'

When he was 11 years old, Joseph Cashore saw a marionette in a store window and was inspired to make his own.

He went home, tied some clothespins together for arms and legs, tied two chunks of wood together for the hips and chest, and found a little tin can and tied it on to the top piece as the head. Finally he strung it up to two cross-sticks — and that was his first marionette. Today, the Pennsylvania native has travelled all over Canada and the US, Asia and Europe with his mesmerising marionettes known for their lifelike movements. Cashore reminisces: “My first marionette wasn’t very good but it really caught my attention. I really remember feeling a sensation that it might be alive for a second.

“Years later when I was about 20 I remembered that marionette and thought — I’m going to try and make a more realistic one. I wanted to sustain that sensation of it being alive and that is what I have been doing ever since.”

The Cashore Marionettes, showing at the Earl Cameron Theatre this week as part of the Bermuda Festival for the Performing Arts, is made up of 13 short skits, each with a different theme. Many are inspired by characters he sees in his day-to-day life, one or two are based on some of his family members.

He explained: “There is a tender piece about a mother and a baby she is trying to put the baby to sleep. There’s a high-spirited piece with a boy flying a kite which is a hopeful piece. I have tried to put the plight of the elephant in another piece — he comes upon the skull of another elephant — there are human voices are in the background and he becomes distressed. It kind of questions what is our relationship with nature. The theme in that I am trying to go for is compassion.”

Cashore makes his marionettes, each standing about two feet tall, out of a mix of wood, papier-mâché, clay, neoprene and wire. He also makes all the props, costumes and settings in the show. Cashore believes that part of the success of his show is the lifelike movements of his puppets.

“I have been experimenting with it all my life,” he explained. “The two big factors in getting good movements is the building of the joints so that they have the correct range of motion and the correct looseness, and also the distribution of weight throughout the body of the character. I spent a lot of time experimenting with it I build the marionette as lightweight as I can and then judiciously add little bits of weight in different parts of the body and lift the string until it can move in a natural looking way.”

Cashore stressed that the main show is not for younger children who might cause a distraction in the audience, there is a separate show for 8s and above. However, he promises the show will be good fun.

“The audience will be surprised by it. In each piece I include something that is unexpected — there is always a turn. I have tried to construct the evening so that emotionally you are up, you are down, there is surprise, it keeps moving. It is not just another puppet show — it is not what they are expecting.”

The main shows are this Friday and Saturday at City Hall from 8pm. The 8s and above shows are this Saturday and Sunday at 3pm. Tickets are $65 and $25 (students) and are available from www.bdatix.bm. Tomorrow at 12:15pm there is a free talk about the construction of the puppets at City Hall. Also, see www.cashoremarionettes.com.