Theatre Traditions: Punch & Judy

Notes from Video:

• Started in Italy 
• Came to UK around 1963
• Slapstick (Comedy)
• Target audience for families (outside aimed at children but will incorporate adult jokes)
• Puppetry 
• Character of Mr. Punch has a unique voice 
• Mr. Punch, Judy (usually has a baby) and Crocodile (and sometimes a police man)
• Small performance space 
• Box that can be moved around 
• Traditionally started at the seaside where it was performed 
• Punch:

• Specific vocal sound (swazzle)
• Normally recognized with red and white stripes 
• Long nose and long chin 
• Nose is usually red 
• "That's the way to do it"
• Always mistreat baby in some way (when asked to look after the baby by Judy)
• Would do something wrong and wounds up in a fight with the policemen/crocodile 
• 
  
• Song to get audience involved 
• Audience interaction (breaking 4th wall) 
• Lots of childish back and forth arguing between Punch and Judy
• Audience is privileged to special information that Judy doesn't see 

Trying it Out:

Reflection:
At the beginning, I didn't want to use puppets for the performance but when I got to try it out it was very fun. Creating a distinction between the voices was confusing because after some time you forget to match the hand actions to the dialogue and then you get confused with the characters. However, this could have been because it was our first time and it was an improvisation so with proper practice and memorization creating a performance would take some challenge and skill to create.