PUNCH AND JUDY: WHOSE SHOW IS IT ANYWAY?

Towards the end of the 20th century performers of the traditional British glove puppet show, Punch and Judy, began to document, to organize and to celebrate their own tradition in response to a number of perceived threats to it. In doing so, they produced tangible and intangible artefacts (texts and films) and experiences (festivals and meetings). These tangible and intangible products stand in contrast to the much of the documentation about the tradition which has been produced by non-performers. Taking the recent making of a DVD of Punch and Judy performers as its starting point, this paper considers this trend and suggests that Punch and Judy performers have regained control of their tradition through the production of these artefacts. The paper also points to the problems of terms such as ‘tangible’ and ‘intangible’. This paper is a slightly amended version of the paper given at the Anderle Radvan conference and puppet festival in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia, held on the 6th September 2013.