Paper partners
Israeli artist Yael Rasooly uses paper puppets to narrate a tale of love, lust and murder
On a chilly evening at the India Habitat Centre, there is a gathering of young and old at the amphitheatre. Children run around asking, “When will the puppets come on stage?”
Minutes later, a woman walks on stage, dressed in a fitted waistcoat, skirt and four-inch heels. She is carrying a manila folder and a briefcase and her hair is in a neat chignon, so it is clear what part she is playing: secretary. Looking at the children sitting in the first row of the audience, this secretary lookalike exclaims, “Well, this is a surprise… I see kids here!” She looks at one of them and smiles. “The puppets are in the briefcase.”
Performing at the Ishara Puppet Festival 2012, an annual event that hosts puppet groups from across the world, Israeli artist Yael Rasooly stands out from her peers. Her puppets are not colourful wooden dolls or furry toys dressed up in miniature costumes — they are paper cutouts pasted onto cardboard and supported by recycled ice-cream sticks. They are also seductive, manipulative and murderous.
Rasooly’s Paper Cut is the tale of Ruth Spencer, a lonely secretary with romantic feelings for her boss, who escapes into a fantasy world in which she is a glamorous 1940s movie star. The show has already received rave reviews at the New York Fringe Festival and has travelled to Hungary, Thailand and France. Paper Cut begins with a dig at the famous Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lion, with Rasooly roaring through an MGM cut-out to signal the start of the show.
The lighting effects, Rasooly’s puppetry and the songs sung by her — she is trained in liturgical music and opera singing — transport her audience back to the era of black-and-white cinema. Cutouts of famous stars like Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn, who are in fact pivotal puppet characters in this show, dance to the puppeteer’s tune.
“I stole music from all my favourite movies,” says Rasooly with a laugh. The background music seems to rise and fall with the paper puppets. It features soundtracks from films like Casablanca (1942) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). The show ends with Rasooly’s beautiful rendition of Charlie Chaplin’s song, “Smile”.
The 1940s were not a very exciting period for Hollywood. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941 resulted in losses in foreign markets. The post-war years, however, witnessed great cinema and a new trend emerged, spearheaded by Alfred Hitchcock: film noir.
That is what inspired Rasooly’s act. “Everything seems perfect and balanced from the outside,” she says, “but there is always a dark underbelly to life, the dream-house always falls apart.” Paper Cut is like a tribute by a fan to Hitchcock's dark, cynical cinema.
In fact, Rasooly enacts the role of a jilted lover, deranged woman and murderer. With the haunting soundtrack from Hitchcock’s 1960 crime thriller Psycho in the background, Rasooly angrily chews up the Cary Grant puppet and spits it out at the audience. A child squeals and Rasooly says, “I'm sorry, it’s all part of the show!”
Does she create a new set of puppets for every show? “No, I usually keep a few extras,” she says. She works with a designer to make her puppets. She looks for ideas in photographs in old magazines found in a public library. And then she customises her performances according to the country she’s in. When the puppets in her show go on a “fantasy honeymoon” across the world, for instance, Rasooly sings in different languages. Entering Palestine, she pauses. “Ah well, let’s not go there,” she says, tongue-in-cheek. When in India — this is a new addition to the act — her Grant hums the romantic chartbuster “Dekha ek khwab toh yeh silsilay hue”, as a shy Hepburn giggles. The audience sings along. Rasooly does close to 20 voice-overs in her 45-minute act.
“I’ve never performed for such a large crowd,” she admits backstage, looking at the audience of 200 gathered outside. The obvious question remains. Is the show suitable for children? “I’ve always maintained it’s a show for adults, but I’m happy to have children in the audience. Puppets, after all, entertain everyone.”
Judging by the group of children hounding her, trying to sneaking a peek into her box of paper puppets, she may be right.