Show on Earth

Language Level: Advance

Standard: British Accent

Source: Speak Up

Show on Earth

The Punch and Judy puppet show, which is an adaptation of the Italian “pulcinella,” has been playing in England since the seventh century. The fact that it continues to survive in the age of the blockbuster movie and video games means that it must be pretty special. Certainly, its characters are remarkable: the Crocodile, the Baby, Joe the Clown, Toby the Dog, a policeman, a ghost and a spider. Martin Scott Price began his career as a Punch and Judy performer at the age of five, when his cousin gave him her set of characters:

Martin Scott Price

(Standard English/mild northern accent)

The show doesn’t really differ greatly from one show to another, but it’s the audience that change every time, and you have to…have a good repartee with the children because they know straight away whether they’re going to like you or dislike you. I mean, it’s the puppets that are controlling the children and, of course, the wooden puppets of Punch and Judy, none of the mouths move, so it’s really a sort of a great show, seeing the puppets working and the pieces of wood are controlling the children.

So why is the show still going strong?

Martin Scott Price:

Because it is a tried-and-tested show, it’s a slapstick sort of show with a lot of tradition, a lot of humour there and it’s something that the children get involved with, which of course, all these sort of video games and things like that, they can’t get sort of involved physically, in the sense of shouting, screaming, that type of thing.

NEVER-ENDING STORY

And it’s not just the show that keeps going on and on. The Punch and Judy men themselves don’t have a retirement age:

Martin Scott Price:

Usually a Punch and Judy man doesn’t give up, hopefully, unless age or illnesses prevent him! But…’cause they…puppets are handed down to the next generation. It’s one of the oldest running traditional shows that I can think, more so than music hall. I don’t think there’s any other show I can think of that’s been running for so long. Three hundred and fifty years is quite a long time.

The first Simpson (no audio available)

The performance of the tale of Punch and varies with each individual puppeteer, but the basic outline is the same: Punch behaves badly. He fights with his with Judy and the Baby, but later wins over the forces of law and order.