Hand in Glove
- Adam Smith
- 3 minutes ago
- 3 min read
How troupe, musician got in tune with ‘Fiery Mountain and Its Princess’ puppet show
When Margaret Moody landed in Taiwan in the 1980s to study Mandarin, she had no idea the adventure would introduce her to the lively world of traditional Chinese hand puppetry.
As she was learning the language and teaching English on the side, she happened to tell another student that she had been dabbling in puppet theater. The student, from France, lit up and told her she should meet the master puppeteer, Li Tien-Lu.
That introduction led her to discover the wonders of “bu dai xi,” a type of puppetry known as cloth bag, or glove, puppetry.
Moody was in awe.
“Nothing I had seen (before) was as intricate as bu dai xi,” she said. The traditional Chinese puppets themselves can be manipulated to alter the characters they represent. The puppeteers, meanwhile, use their fingers and hands to let the puppets perform tasks and actions – walking, fighting, and with more skilled, two-handed work, drinking tea. “You can throw them in the air and flip them.”
But there was a problem for her new teacher, Li Tien-Lu.
At the time, he was elderly and saw that the public was turning to movies and other popular entertainment over the traditional art form. Even in temples, the puppets were getting less attention.
“He told us: ‘My art is dying now,’” said Moody of Li Tien-Lu. She said he was so worried about the future of bu dai xi theater that he took her and other students, including her colleague, Madeleine Beresford, without pay.
“What he said to us, was, ‘I don’t need your money… People in Taiwan pay attention when foreign people pay attention.”
It may sound crass, she said, but the savvy puppeteer – who even took on roles in B-movies to support the art – knew that if Americans, Europeans and others were inspired by traditional puppet arts, it might revive interest among the Taiwanese.
One of Li Tien-Lu’s later folk tale scripts, before he died in the 1990s, was for “The Fiery Mountain and Its Princess: A Monkey King Tale.” For years, Moody and Beresford, would practice and perform a simple version of the tale in the Galapagos Puppets troupe they founded together after college. But now, decades after their journey into Chinese puppet arts began, the two will give new life to the show. This February the Galapagos Puppets will put on “The Fiery Mountain and Its Princess” with musician Jimmy Zhao and his daughter, Iris, who will perform at the Puppet Showplace Theatre in Brookline, Feb. 14 to 17.
Unlike the troupe’s earlier performances of “The Fiery Mountain and Its Princess” that relied on recorded music, this show will be set to the live, improvised scores created by Zhao. The longtime musician, who is now in his 70s, will play the erhu, a two-stringed Chinese violin; the banhu, a high-pitched two-stringed instrument; and the bamboo flute. Iris will likely play the percussion. Instead of working from written scores, the two will shift their notes and melodies to reflect the personalities and actions of the characters in the Chinese folk tale.
“He really calls the shots,” said Moody. “He’s our band leader.”
A former student of the legendary late Chinese musician Liu Mingyuan, Zhao started learning the bamboo flute when he was six years old and the erhu at 9 years old.
“I always try something new at each show,” said Zhao. “Every time I bring a special instrument.”
Moody said Zhao is “watching our action and improvising” as the puppeteers manipulate the cloth bag puppets with their fingers.
In this show, a monk named Tang and his disciples embark on a voyage but are stopped by a fiery mountain that can only be extinguished by magical fan. That fan, however, is held by the Iron Fan Princess who refuses to share it. The monk and his crew then turn to their “powers of transformation and persuasion” as well as martial arts to try and gain access to the fan and help the Monkey King tame the flames.
Moody said she’s particularly drawn to the show, which is part of the “Journey to the West” series of Chinese folktales, because “there is a moral ambiguity and a reality that is beautiful; it’s not black and white moral values.”
She said she hopes the audience shares that appreciation and how traditional arts can still convey a story of action and surprise.
“At the end of the day, Madeleine and I have just four hands between us” and can still put on a show of action and intrigue.
“I think it’s so great for kids to see it’s not all about special effects and being online.”