Vasilache, a román vásári kesztyűs bábjáték hőse
Vasilache, Hero of the Romanian Fair Hand-puppet Plays

Summary/Abstract: In my paper I will be talking about the evolution of the Romanian fair hand-puppet plays, the relationship of its hero, Vasilache, and the Karagöz plays, the appearance of Vasilache at fairs and tourneys, and the Vasilache and Mărioara plays after the regime change of ’89. The Romanian fair puppet plays splintered from puppet, and later religious puppet plays, to become an autonomous play style. According to Romanian researchers the play of puppets simplified over the course of time, and then crystallized to be the Vasilache and Mărioara show. By analyzing the traditional Romanian folk puppet hero’s evolutional history, we can note that the playing tradition was passed down from generation to generation, and the script was never written down. Current research data shows that we do not possess any evidence of folk puppeteers to have had a permanent playing spot. Furthermore, the data we have about their activities is as sporadic as the physical objects we are left with. It is very hard to reconstruct the original, traditional playing form of the folk puppeteers. The last folk puppeteer’s death caused the traditional form of the play to come to an end, the authentic style of the shows was not passed unto the next generation. Although the relevance of the Vasilache character has vanished from the puppet theater, it pops up in the repertoire of individual puppeteers, and occasionally puppet theaters.

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