Drama experts to unveil new version of Punch & Judy at national festival

A new version of the iconic Punch & Judy show aimed will make its debut at a national festival taking place next month.

Tackling issues pertinent to women and LGBTQ+ communities, the show is being developed by drama experts at the University of Exeter and will be unveiled for the first time at Being Human, the UK’s free festival of the humanities.

It follows on from a successful project undertaken by the team this year to create a more contemporary, gender-balanced version of the show, which played at the annual Covent Garden May Fayre and Puppet Festival, and at seaside and tourist venues in Devon throughout the summer.

The performances are part of the public outreach of a three-year research programme called The Judy Project, which is investigating the roles that women have played in this puppetry tradition over the past 360 years and how gender is portrayed through the artform.

“Punch began life as a character who performed for largely adult audiences,” says Dr Alissa Mello, the project’s lead and Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Exeter’s Department of Communications, Drama and Film. “As Punch & Judy moved from 18th century urban theatres and strolling players to the streets and seasides of late 19th century England, its content evolved to reflect the new audiences it was playing to.”

“Now, thanks to this funding we have received from Being Human, we have the opportunity to revisit what a show might look like for a contemporary adult audience.”

Rehearsals for the new show are currently taking place and will be led by emerging Punch Professor Nephew Spike Bones and the team at Promenade Promotions (Prom-Prom) Limited – a social enterprise supporting traditional forms of seaside entertainment and culture. It will then debut across two performances in Cornwall and Devon on 9 and 10 November, alongside four of the family-friendly contemporary version.

“The public response to the work we have done so far has been universally positive,” says Dr Tony Lidington, Senior Lecturer in Drama and an expert in British popular entertainment. “Young and old, traditionalists to those with a taste for alternative cultures, the show has drawn praise for the way in which it has updated the story without losing its appeal for all ages.

“Puppetry often contains adult themes and resonances that are embedded within the form of family entertainment, and this new version will enable Spike and the team to explore some of those darker elements.”

“We don’t know if it will work… yet!” adds Spike. “But there is a tradition in the popular performing arts of the seamier side being exposed on occasions – indeed, pantomimes still do this. So, it could be argued that this is all part of the carnivalesque misrule of popular culture, where beauty is represented by the grotesque, youth and old age are swapped and the sacred becomes profane.”

The Judy Project: A Critical and Historical Investigation of Women and Puppetry from the Eighteenth to the Twenty-First Century has been funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant and the University of Exeter’s Public Engagement with Research fund.

For more details about Being Human, and the performances of Punch with a Twist at Bodmin and Exeter, visit the events section of their website.