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Shadow theater in China history. The history of Chinese theater - how it originated and developed

Flat, thin theatrical figures were first made of paper, and compacted with donkey skin. The theater was sometimes called "Lu Pi-ying" - "donkey skin figurines".

For more than two millennia before the advent of cinema, shadow theater was already known in China. It was the very first performance on the screen. Showing the story, accompanied by music and a story, cute figures moved on a brightly lit white background. Flat, thin theatrical figures were usually made first from paper, then compacted with donkey skin. The theater was sometimes called "Lu Pi-ying" - "donkey skin figurines". These puppets, controlled by wooden, bamboo or thin metal sticks, were the centerpiece of the theatrical performance, and were usually a work of art. They were not white, but on the contrary, they were painted so that the color of each detail could be distinguished through the screen. Color often played a symbolic role, telling the viewer about the nature and role of the character. It is interesting that usually an insidious, evil or vile person was depicted as colorless. The spectator examined the figurines in small details, but the performance had to be not only watched, but also listened to, it was accompanied by the playing of the orchestra and subsided or prose.

The orchestra included stringed traditional Chinese instruments, and in some regions the performance was accompanied by the rhythmic beats of bamboo sticks. The repertoire of stories for theatrical performances from shadow and light was very diverse: these are traditional plots like The Return of the Monkey King, travel stories and interesting tales and parables. For the performance, the troupe had to consist of at least five people. These were puppeteers and musicians, the latter playing many instruments and being able to control the figurines.

In China, the shadow theater was interesting to people already in the 2nd millennium BC. e., it gradually spread throughout the East, was especially loved by the Turks. Europe got acquainted with this ancient oriental art only in 1767, when the missionary Jules Alod told the French about it. The Europeans of those years appreciated the symbolic possibilities of the shadow theater. What, if not an illusion, is the play of shadows and light this whole world, as if the Chinese theater was speaking to a European. Figurines began to be made simply in black, with an emphasis on their allegorical meaning.

The shadow is a romantic-mysterious image that has a sacramental character, akin to a mirror. In some languages, the words "shadow" and "soul" are identical, because in many myths, the image of the shadow is the second "I", like the Egyptian spirit-double "ka". The images of the eastern shadow theater play the role of visual support for the narrative; this principle of perception was the basis of the ancient oriental wall images of Egypt and Mesopotamia. Looking at the images, the viewer "listened" to the reading of the sacred text or recalled a well-known story - this was, to some extent, the prototype of the shadow theater.

In the archaic form of shadow theater, the shadows on the screen were created by hand gestures.

The legend regarding the origin of the shadow theater is also gloomy and romantic: "The wife of the Chinese emperor died, he missed her greatly, and the subjects came up with the idea of showing the shadow of his wife behind the screen." This is how a form of visual art appeared, dating back to about 200 BC during the era of Emperor Han-Wu-chi. But it became widespread during the Sun Dynasty.

Shadow theater combines three types of art - music (instrumental or voice accompaniment), literature (stories and scripts), craft (puppet making) or painting (set and puppets themselves) in one.

Then thin translucent silhouettes were cut out of leather, most often donkey. And initially, this theater was called that - "donkey skin puppet theater".

Later, figurines were made from various materials - thin transparent leather (goat, camel), paper or cardboard, could be either solid and integral, or bendable, consisting of separate parts attached to each other. The height of the doll is most often 30 centimeters, but there are also large ones, 70 centimeters.
These figurines are called puppets. In itself, the image of puppets has also been endowed with a sacramental meaning since ancient times: "Man is a puppet controlled by a deity," said the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle. And another great philosopher - Plato, talking with his students, took a puppet in his hands and explained to his students that people, like puppets, are ruled by the threads of Good and Evil, Virtues and Vices. But you need to obey only one thread - the golden thread of the mind. ("Golden" is the thread that controls the doll's head.) From which we can conclude that this art is even more ancient.

The figurines were controlled using bamboo, wooden or metal sticks.

The silhouette in Chinese shadow theater expresses character. The shape of the eye, head, posture is regulated by tradition and corresponds to the role. One hand of the doll, as a rule, holds a weapon or other characteristic attribute, the other moves. The silhouettes of the Chinese theater were, in contrast to the silhouettes of shadow theaters of European imitators, painted. In the Chinese shadow theater, the technique of demonstrating projections was somewhat different from the technique of European theaters. In the Chinese theater, projections are made on a transparent screen, illuminating leather silhouettes from behind. The viewer sees not only the contour, but also a delicate color. In Chinese shadow theater, the silhouettes projected onto a screen are meant to be looked at, which is why they are so intricate in outline and color. The viewer listens to the story, and at the same time looks at the projection on the screen. The characters illustrate the historical epic scenes of popular novels, legends, musical tales, legends, fairy tales, legends that were interesting and understandable to ordinary Chinese viewers. Shadow puppets were very expensive. Only rich people could afford to have them, and they were kept in rooms that were considered the most sacred place in the home. The set of the court shadow theater included up to 600 shadow figures.

The performances of the shadow theater took place, as a rule, at night from dusk to dawn. In India, a huge screen was placed on bamboo poles in a well-packed clearing. Behind the screen, a coconut shell fire was kindled, on the other side, somewhere under a mango tree, the audience was located. A storyteller sat in front of the screen, and the inhabitants of the village, holding their breath, listened to his story about the life of the gods and the exploits of the heroes of the folk epics "Ramayana" and "Mahabharata". The performance could go on for many nights in a row. And initially, children were not allowed to attend such performances, but men and women watched theirseparately.

The pilgrims carried stories about the theater throughout Asia, and so it turned out in Mongolia. With the Mongol troops of Genghis Khan, they spread to other regions of Asia and Europe.

Shadow theater reached its highest form during the Ottoman Empire in Turkey. Karagöz "black
eye" - the hero of the Turkish shadow theater was the most popular.
The prototype of Karagez was a very real Turkish blacksmith, a fighter and a hooligan. He lived in the middle of the XIV century at the court of Sultan Orhan and worked on the construction of a mosque. He was very fond of chatting with his friend Khajivat, a bricklayer. They told each other jokes one after another, so the work went very slowly. The Sultan found out about this and decided to execute both. Not for jokes, but for bad work. And he executed, and then repented, but it was too late. Then, in order to console the Sultan, one of his confidants cut out the shadow figures of Karagoz and Khadzhivat and showed a performance in which the friends again, as if alive, played out their jokes. They say that this calmed the Sultan, and since then performances with the participation of Karagez have been played throughout Turkey. Plays with him were played by one person, who was called karagezdzhi, he controlled the shadow figures and voiced all the characters in turn, changing his voice.

In the Middle Ages in Spain, the 3rd form of the tetra of shadows stood out, when for some time the artists were forbidden to go on stage, but they wanted to go out, they came up with the idea of performing behind a screen. Since then, the use of the shadows of living people to show the performance has become known as the Spanish shadows.

In Russia in 1733, the mention of the theater of shadows was in the newspaper "Sankt-Peterburgskiye Vedomosti": "Other imitations of disgraceful games are made only by a shadow, which is cast on paper smeared with oil in a dark chamber. And although the figures shown in this way do not say anything, however "Well, from signs and other indications, it is known what they signify. This shadow depicts many wondrous types and their applications, which in other disgraceful games can not be done so well." The only large State Shadow Theater in Russia now was organized in 1937 at the Museum of Children's Books and it opened with the premiere of a performance based on the novel "Til Ulenspiegel" by Charles de Coster (one of my favorite novels). It still works today. But his repertoire includes not only shadow performances, but also ordinary puppet performances.

"Chinese shadows" were common in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1767, before the French Revolution, the technique of shadow theater was brought home from China by the French missionary Jules Alod. And, here the shadow theater was so loved and shown a lot that it began to be called "French shadows". And he enjoyed the greatest fame in the theater of shadows of Dominic Serafen in Versailles.

The stories of the Serafina theater commented on the present, brought out heroes whose types were recognizable. The projected silhouettes supported in this theater not epic narratives or even fairy tales, but a kind of anecdotes. In 1790, during a fierce struggle between different factions within the "Constituent Assembly" for the constitution, Serafin gave the play "National Federation" on the topic of the day; in 1793, after the execution of Louis XVI, - the play "An Apple for the Most Beautiful, or the Overthrow of the Throne." The interest of educated Europeans in shadow theater with its specific form of storytelling based on laconic visual images was an integral part of the "salon" interest in folklore. The unpretentious show of Serafina for 2 years became boring to the courtiers, and the theater moved to Paris. The Serafina Theater existed until 1859, when its heirs replaced the shadows with voluminous puppets.

In addition to Serafina, the Belgian Etienne Gaspard Robert was the most famous shadow theater critic of the last years of the Republic. Robert's show was called "phantasmagoria", which means "collection of ghosts". It opened in 1797, two years before Napoleon Bonaparte declared himself dictator and the end of the Republic declared during the first years of the Revolution. Life in Paris gradually became more calm and well-fed. Mass arrests and executions ceased, the war moved away from the borders of France, secular salons reopened in the city. Robert's performance took place in the ruins of a Capuchin convent near Place Vendôme. During the performance, the author “revealed” to the public with the help of an improved “magic lantern” the “shadows of the dear dead”: Marat, Robespierre, Danton, Louis XVI and Lavoisier, as well as mythological characters: Hebe, Minerva, Medusa Gargona. Not the last place in the show was occupied by Death with a scythe, the Wandering Monk, the character of the popular "gothic novel" by M. G. Lewis, and other "macabre" characters. Shadows made an indelible impression on the public. "Women fainted, brave men closed their eyes." During the five years of the show's existence, "the whole of Paris" has been in the walls of the monastery.

In the representations of Robertson, as he began to call himself, visual images play more
independent role than in Chinese shadow theatre. Most of the magic lanterns that were used for the display were quite powerful, and were placed on platforms with wheels that allowed them to be moved quickly and silently along special rails towards or away from the screen. The swift and noiseless movement of the lantern created the feeling that the image was approaching the audience, flying towards the audience, approaching them “from the depths of space”. As the flashlight approached the screen, the focal length changed. For the instantaneous disappearance of the image, a device called the "cat's eye" was used - a plug with a triangular hole that closed the light source and instantly plunged the audience back into darkness. The next fundamental decision for Phantasmagoria was a translucent screen that let the color image and light pass through the fabric, as in the Chinese shadow theater. In the Chinese theater, the light comes through the silhouette puppets and through the screen. In Phantasmagoria, the silhouettes depicted on a glass slide were surrounded by a black reflective background, they were perceived as completely autonomous, independently moving objects. The bats diving at the ladies were projected by small lanterns that they held in their hands. About 10 lanterns could be involved in the show at the same time. Flowing shadows were obtained by projecting onto smoke. The calling of "ghosts" was accompanied by sound effects, which were widely used in the theater of that time.

Robertson's desire for gloomy productions was explained by the very legend (Chinese) about the emergence of shadow theater. Here, images of the theater symbolized topics important to the public: politicians who died in the early years of the Revolution or characters from favorite gothic novels. The "terrible" images created by Robertson turned out to be so successful that they survived the show for a long time. During the Napoleonic Wars, the secret police used this technique to frighten deserters as they tried to escape from active units. They projected the head of Medusa and the Wandering Monk onto the trees of the forest at night to frighten officers who were trying to leave the unit without permission.

Images of "phantasmagoria" set the iconography of "macabre" pictures for the "home" magic lantern. For this reason, Robertson is considered the founder of one of the main genres of modern entertainment cinema - i.e. horror films.

Since 1885, there was another show in Paris "which made all Paris come together." The revival of interest in the Chinese "shadow theater" was influenced by the art nouveau aesthetics. The artist Henri Riviere once sat in a cafe, listened to the singer's performance, then began to cut little men out of napkins and cardboard and show illustrations for the songs. Everyone liked it so much that Henri Riviere created his own shadow theater.

And so, on the Rue Victor-Masse not far from Montmartre, the Cha Noir (Black Cat) cabaret was opened, which was visited by many artists and writers, among whom were Emile Zola and Edgar Degas. Cabaret in those years had a slightly different reputation than today. It was an alternative to official secular culture. In 1887, the coupletist Jules Joux had the idea to illustrate his song on the topic of the day with a demonstration of shadows. The song was dedicated to the scandal in the government due to the distribution of orders. The number was a huge success. This led the administration to the idea of a complete transition of the cabaret to the demonstration of shadows.

Famous French artists Caran de Ash, Henri Somm and others worked in it. The Black Cat became a large theater: 10-15 people took part in the performances. Sha Noir performances were intended for a more sophisticated audience. They showed the "Epic" dedicated to Napoleon, "The Temptation of St. Anthony", "The Womb of Paris" (genre scenes), "Sphinx", "Campaign to the Sun" (about the Anglo-Burr War). Henri Riviere paid great attention to lighting effects: special colored glasses were made for each performance. Heavy zinc shadow figures moved with the help of complex mechanisms. They were carried around the stage on special rails. The performances of the cabaret shadow theater were directed as productions of the "big" theater. On the screen, not individual figures succeeded each other, as in the classical shadow theater, but scenes planned by artists. The theater existed until 1897.

The most famous shadow theater now is the Javanese Wayang Kuli: puppets made of waxed
transparent paper on hinges, painted in various colors. Javanese shadow figures are controlled by puppeteers with canes and are made from buffalo skin. into parchment. Then a master carver works on this plate, turning it into a "wayang" - a shadow puppet. This profession in Java is one of the most respected. Carvers carve silhouettes and cover them with openwork carvings. Then the painters paint them using only five colors: white, yellow, blue, red and black. Then the dolls are assembled: arms, legs and heads are attached to them. And finally, control sticks are attached to the doll. Such dolls for one performance need 100-150 pieces.

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Camille Saint-Saens - dance of death (Danse Macabre):

Once upon a time, there lived an emperor in China. This Chinese emperor had a beloved wife. It so happened that she fell ill and died. The emperor was inconsolable. He retired from all business, went to his chambers, hung heavy curtains over the windows, closed all the doors and stopped talking. His courtiers didn't know what to do. The affairs of the empire began to decline, and the emperor was in anguish for his dead wife.
One day, the chief palace courtier called the emperor to his wife's chambers, and when the emperor entered, he saw the silhouette of his dead wife behind the curtain. She got up and walked, her beautiful profile looming behind the curtain against the sun. The emperor was shocked. So the chief courtier showed the emperor the wonders of the Shadow Theater and cured him of longing. The emperor began to ask the courtier every evening to show him performances with a doll that was a copy of his wife. He began to invite other courtiers to view. He watched the shadow of his wife behind the curtain move: walk, play musical instruments, sit by the window. She is so similar to his beloved wife, only she is behind the thinnest fabric. And the emperor suddenly realized that this fabric is not an eternal barrier between them, and his beloved continues to live somewhere, but not here, and he and his wife will meet again someday. It just takes time. Since then, he cheered up and began to engage in state affairs.

This beautiful legend is associated with the beginning of the appearance of the Shadow Theater - an art that came to us in 200 BC, in the era of Emperor Han-Wu-chi. Further, the Shadow Theater began its triumphal march across the earth, it appeared in India, Turkey, went all over Asia, reached Europe with the troops of Genghis Khan, conquered it, reached Russia, conquered all of St. Petersburg, then Moscow.

The performances of the Shadow Theater in ancient times, as a rule, took place at night, right on the street by the light of an oil lamp and the puppets of one performance could have up to 1000 figures, not counting the scenery.

Puppets for such performances were made from skins, the skin was dressed to a transparent thinness, and then a doll figure was cut out of it, patterns were cut out on it and painted. Most often, dolls were made from donkey skin. And that's why people also call the shadow theater - "donkey skin puppet theater".

The height of the doll for the Shadow Theater was most often made 30 centimeters high. The figurines were made movable, they consisted of interconnected parts. The person behind the screen controlled the puppet with the help of special long rods,
(bamboo, steel, wooden), and the audience saw only the shadows of the puppets that were projected on the illuminated screen, saw the movement, the exciting plot, heard the music, singing, but did not see the puppeteer himself, since the light behind the screen was heading towards that at an angle, which made the puppeteer invisible.

The most famous Shadow Theater now is Javanese, Wayang-Kuli: whose dolls are still made from buffalo skin, the skin is thinned so that it becomes thin and transparent, like paper. These dolls are called Wayang Kuli paper dolls. These dolls are very durable. For example, the dolls that are stored in the German Museum have not lost their color so far. Although they are already 1200 years old!
In the west, shadow theater is considered one of the most elegant and elite arts; in Europe, even special festivals are held.

The first information about the existence of a shadow theater in China dates back to the beginning of the 2nd millennium. The Chinese shadow theater drew its plots from a common source with drama and puppet theater - popular historical tales and legends. It is no wonder that it was the people of the East, who were prone to deep observations of nature, contemplation, meditation and penetration into the holy of holies of the essence of things and phenomena, who were among the first who managed to comprehend the character

ter shadows. Connoisseurs and creators of refined forms of art, working with graceful images in poetry and painting, the Chinese appreciated the property of matter to cast a shadow - they saw the graceful in the rough.

The Chinese shadow theater drew its plots from popular legends and ancient historical legends. Figures of characters for performances were made of skin (donkey, mutton, or, as in Fujian, monkey) or colored paper. Often they were decorated with colored silks, so that the Chinese theater with its colorful performances could be called color and shade. The puppets were controlled by three spokes attached to the figure's neck and wrists, and were movable.

According to one version, the art of Chinese shadow theater is rooted in the era of the Han Dynasty (206 BC-206 AD). The emperor of Han Wudi, ruling at that time, was saddened by the unexpected death of his beloved wife and therefore abandoned all state affairs.

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natural affairs. The dignitary Li Shao-wen was walking along the streets and, thinking about how to get the emperor out of a painful state, drew attention to the children who were amused by playing with their shadows on the ground. This led the dignitary to an original idea on how to disperse the melancholy of his sovereign. He returned home and depicted the dead wife of the emperor (in profile) on a piece of dense matter. Then I painted and cut out the image, and attached thin strings to the arms and legs. When it got dark, he pulled on a silk screen and placed the candles so that a shadow from the figure he had made appeared on the screen. The figure moved when the strings were pulled.

He invited the emperor, disappeared behind the screen and showed the doll in motion, trying to imitate not only the graceful manners, but even the intonations of the voice of the deceased. Seeing the shadow of his late beloved wife, the emperor of Han Wudi was very comforted, pulled himself together and returned to abandoned state affairs. Since then, the game of shadows has become one of the new entertainments in the emperor's palace. Soon this palace fun grew into a mass popular hobby. This is how shadow theater was born. But there is another, less romantic, version of the emergence of the shadow theater. According to this version, noble ladies in China were not allowed to watch "live" scenes, so for them

gave shadow performances, which at that time were unusually loved and popular. During the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368), shadow theater was an entertainment for warriors who were away from populated areas. And during the invasion of Genghis Khan, the shadow theater moved with warriors from one place to another, which contributed to its rapid and widespread spread. Soon, their own shadow theaters arose in Persia, Arab and southeastern countries appeared their own shadow theaters. And in China during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), many theater troupes appeared, the plots of which were inspired by ancient legends about the war between the principalities of Chu and Han.

Over time, shadow theater, like any dramatic art, began to be modified and divided into several directions. Let's get acquainted with the most famous of them.

Eastern school shadow theater - the most famous and authoritative - originated in the Tanshan area.

western school shadow theater, which is otherwise known as the Beijing shadow theater.

paiban piin- the most musical and plastically perfect shadow theater, in the productions of which everything obeys the rhythm of the beats of bamboo sticks.

TheaterLunsi- the most elegant and picturesque, since the figurines, their outfits and decorative ornaments are very beautiful and

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are painted in traditional Chinese painting style.

Shaanxi theater- folklore, all actions in the plots are based on fairy tales and legends about good wizards and journeys to the west.

Lu Piying- paper shadow theater, and yang piying - theater of shadows from goatskin.

Manufacturing technique and craftsmanship Manufacturing technique - this is a complex, time-honored process of selecting material, searching for a bright image and creating it in the form of a shadow figure (silhouette), graphing and coloring.

During the Song Dynasty (960-1279), goatskin was used. Talented artists drew various images on paper and copied on the surface of the unfolded skin, then cut out the silhouettes and painted. Subsequently, the skin of buffalo and donkeys began to be used. In some places, this type of theater is called Lu Pi-ying, which means "donkey skin shadows."

Craftsmen even put together sayings that clearly indicate all the key technological links. For example, they say that donkey skin is the most suitable for a shadow figure, since it is very soft, large in area and at the same time quite thin (even translucent with good dressing), therefore it is suitable for depicting a character’s head. skin on

donkey's back is suitable for carving household items (tables and chairs, screen, etc.). The skin on the neck is suitable for carving animals (such as horses, tigers) or carts, boats, etc. To this day, shadow theaters that arose in the Tangshan area of Hebei Province, on the banks of the Luanhe River, are famous. Many silhouettes and scenery of the shadow theater are valuable exhibits of museums. Typical images of various characters usually had only a profile, i.e. eyebrows, eye sockets, mouth and nose were cut out, and everything else was hollow. The heads of the figurines were traditionally painted in red, green, yellow, white and black. With the help of color, the characters of the heroes of the performance were designated. For example, according to the plot of the ancient novel "Three Kingdoms", the image of the hero Guan Yu, beloved by the people, always looks like this: a red face, thick black eyebrows, a sharp look. With all his appearance, he expresses the characteristic features of an honest, straightforward person and always ready for exploits. Green color is a hallmark of courage and boldness. For example, in the representations of the Sui (581-618) and Tang (618-907) dynasties, the image of the people's favorite Cheng Yaojin was always green. Black denoted strictness, disinterestedness, justice as the most important traits in the character of the characters. Yellow color usually highlighted the images of people with magical powers,

shave off the hair and dry the skin to a transparent state. After that, a sketch of the future figure is applied to the prepared skin, which is cut out using knives and scissors of various sizes and shapes, and then carefully painted. The color of the figurine should not be monotonous, while the doll can be monophonic or very colorful. The key and most difficult element of manufacturing is ironing, which is done after cutting and coloring the figure. At the end of the work, the individual parts are connected together, and the doll is completely ready. Fortunately, while modern cinema and television compete with each other for a mass audience, a group of folk artists continues to survive in China, who annually “plant” more and more flowers of creativity on the screen of the shadow theater in order to develop and preserve this wonderful ancient Chinese art for posterity. art that never ceases to be modern and surprisingly new.

and white - they marked the images of cunning, treacherous, treacherous people. Usually the theater troupe consisted of five to seven people. The orchestra consisted of stringed musical instruments (Chinese violin "erhu", "hu-qin", "yuetsin" - a kind of lute); percussion musical instruments (small biangu, yungu drums, copper cymbals of various sizes); spiritual musical instruments (trumpet, sonna) and many others. But it should be noted that the musicians usually played several instruments and, in addition, performed the role of backup actors. An important place in the troupe was occupied by actors who deftly controlled the figures with the help of bamboo sticks and forced them to perform various movements. Moreover, the movements were performed exactly according to the plot: the actor synchronized the action, text and music accompaniment. Note: a thin string was attached to the end of the bamboo stick, connecting the moving parts

figurines.

The shadow theater of eastern Gansu became widespread during the Ming and Qing dynasties in the 14th-19th centuries. The figures for the shadow theater in this area are especially beautiful and made with great taste. The black skin of young buffalo served as the material for the manufacture of puppets of the shadow theater. This skin is quite thin, but strong and plastic. In the process of preparing the material for the future doll, it was necessary

SHADOW THEATER

India: dancing gods

The art of shadow theater became popular in India in the 16th century, especially during the reign of Buda Reddy. Indian puppets are the largest in the theater world, and shadow theater performances often take place near the temple of Shiva, the patron god of puppets. According to folklore, in the days when toys were traditionally carved whole from a single piece of wood, there was a craftsman who made unusual dolls from individual parts. One day, the god Shiva and his wife, the goddess Parvati, entered the shop of this master. Parvati, looking at the dolls, was so fascinated that she asked her husband to allow their spirits to move into the dolls so that they could dance.

After the gods had enjoyed the spectacle and were tired, they took their souls and left. The master, who was watching with interest what was happening, wanted to make the dolls dance again. He bandaged their parts and was able to control the puppets with threads.

Shadow theater performances usually took place at night from dusk to dawn. A wide clearing was well tamped down and a huge screen was placed on bamboo poles. Behind the screen, a fire was lit from coconut shells. On the other side, somewhere under a mango tree, there were numerous spectators. The narrator sat in front of the screen, and the inhabitants of the village, holding their breath, listened to his story about the life of the gods and the exploits of the heroes of the folk epic Ramayana and Ma-habharata. During the story, the drum suddenly began to beat, then other musical instruments entered, and dolls appeared on the screen - the heroes of the story. It seemed that they came to people from another world. The shadow theater performance could go on for many nights in a row. Children were not allowed to attend such spectacles. Moreover, men and women watched the performances separately.

Getting acquainted with China, it was impossible not to be tempted by the national cultural heritage of this country, protected by UNESCO. Namely - the shadow theater. Its history is almost as ancient as the mustachioed dragon Ling itself. In Europe, it appeared only in the eighteenth century. In general, this is something like a black and white cartoon that develops both imagination and artistic taste.

Making a shadow theater yourself is quite easy, and it looks extremely spectacular. Traditionally, the silhouettes of the figurines are cut out of donkey skin, but we limited ourselves to simple cardboard. The more openwork the figures are, the more interesting it is to look at them on stage later, so small details are welcome.

You can experiment and add different textures. For example, petals.

At first, the figures were on a string, but this turned out to be inconvenient, because the hands of the puppeteers were constantly visible. Therefore, the best option turned out to be dolls on the shelves:

Photo by Roman Tsybulin

The stage for cardboard actors is a translucent plane on which they leave their shadows. To do this, we took a wooden frame and pulled corrugated paper over it, and placed a light source at the back.

There is a belief that the shadow theater in China arose as a consolation for the emperor, who lost his beloved wife. He saw her silhouette in the folds of the curtain, and his heart calmed down. With this technique, you can create frozen pictures. For example, the composition "Christmas". Really soothing.

But when things start to move, it's like magic. Therefore, let's talk about our theatrical evening, which took place on Friday, April 10th. Little puppeteers showed three performances to parents, an adult group and the rest of those who came by appointment. During the intermission, of course, there was a buffet (:

So, we are studying the art of China, so we also chose fairy tales with a Chinese bias:

"Nightingale"

The first performance is a well-known story about a nightingale written by Hans Christian Andersen.

Photo by Artur Salnikov

This is the most difficult performance, it is longer than the others and there are many characters in it.

Photo by Andrey Ustinov

Several people drew and carved figures, but only one of the artists came to the evening. With him we showed:

The fairy tale is read by Tatiana Tokmakova. Video by Roman Tsybulin

"Defeat the Dragon"

This is a Chinese folk tale of the same name. All the characters and scenery were made by the five-year-old Lavrik himself, without any outside help (his mother and I are simply not up to it, so we only helped to cut out small details).

Please note that the castle is a real Chinese pagoda, and the Dragon itself is typically Chinese, that is, long and with a mustache.

Photo by Andrey Ustinov

This story teaches us a lot. What makes dragons out of people? How should one behave in order to remain a man, and not a lizard without a heart and soul?

The fairy tale is read by Tatiana Tokmakova. Video by Roman Tsybulin.

"Three Sons of the Empress"

This is the funniest fairy tale that we all composed together based on a famous Chinese parable. Because of this, the story turned out like a patchwork quilt, because you can immediately see where the notions of adults wedged in, and where - children, but this is rather her dignity.