February's Puppet of the Month - Chamberlain from Le Rossignol

Chamberlain: Uh, ah – yes, yes! I am the Chamberlain! I am here. I am ready to commence the interview. Let us start.

You’re very efficient, Chamberlain. This isn’t how our puppet interviews normally run.

C: Well yes, but I am exceptionally organised and efficient and it is my job to do the introductions to court, yes – so – one of us needs to get this thing going do we not?

Maybe you can tell me a bit about your role at court?

C: I herald in visitors to the Emperor at the Imperial Court and I am often accompanied by the Cook – who is a wok - and the Bonze – who is a lantern – and we have good fun.

And you are... a scroll? How did that come about?

C: The music of the opera of Le Rossignol took the design team to Cubism, and in Cubism you have things where the parts are lots of bits of the same thing – you know, like the Violin Woman – and so the puppet design looked at objects and then those objects influenced the movement of the puppet. So I am a scroll and I was very popular with the puppeteers, yes I was.

And why was that?

C: Because I leap onstage in a dynamic and high energy way! Like a scroll unfurling. In the end a puppeteer called Valentin – who is a breakdancer – got to operate me. Lucky boy.

Violin & Candlestick - Georges Braque