A giant puppet is a puppet which is tall enough to be easily visible to a street crowd while being manipulated by puppeteers, on the same level. It is therefore most suitable for processions, street theatre and performance art, although some large theatrical animations can be used for the same purpose. Giant puppets are usually articulated and made from a lightweight material. Some are manipulated by puppeteers using rods, strings, stilts, other mechanisms, or a combination of these. Giant puppets have been used worldwide for street entertainment, celebrations or other purposes from ancient times, and they continue in use and in development today. Of the traditional giant rod puppets, the Chinese dragon New Year puppet is "perhaps the most recognized form of the parade puppet". Of the most recent examples, Royal de Luxe of France has produced a notable set of giant string puppets.
History Giant puppets are suited to outdoor performance, especially street theatre and processions, because they are visible above the crowd while remaining on the same level.
Ancient origins The origins of certain traditions which use giant puppets may be ancient. In Shimla, Himalayas and other areas of India, the Dussehra festivals of September and October celebrate "the triumph of Good over Evil", and 15-metre puppets are carried in procession and then burned. "The principal demons of the epic Ramayana are represented: Ravana with his ten heads, the symbol of destruction and the forces of Evil, accompanied by his son Meghanada (Indrajit) and brother Kumbhakarna. The puppets are made of a bamboo framework covered in layers of paper. Painted in vivid colours, they are accompanied by fireworks to ensure a most spectacular incineration". In the Beembe of Mouyondzi, Congo-Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, the "anthropomorphic musical instruments ... reach the height of 1.5 metres and are carved from wood and hollowed to resonate the breaths of those that carry them, their mouth placed over the puppet’s back".
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (former Zaire) the Bwende people take part in a funeral ceremony that consists of carrying, on a stretcher, an enormous puppet called niombo, an effigy to the dead chief. Stitched in woven fabric ornate with symbols, it is made of wood, raffia and herbs and contains the dried remains of the chief. Its size can be up to 2.5 metres (8.2 feet) both in height and width. The Pende people lift a mbambi puppet, from 6 to 10 metres (19.7 to 32.8 feet) high, deep into the bush, at the end of a masked dance. It is raised by sliding bamboo under the body – which is made up of fabric held together by circular rings of palm branches. The head is that of a bearded mask and the arms, holding fly swatters, are animated using twine attached to their outer-most extremities. The Chinese giant dragon puppets of the New Year festivals are "perhaps the most recognized form of parade puppet". This type of puppet performs a weaving dance in which up to ten puppeteers control it at speed, with rods. Japan has its own tradition: "huge traditional hinkoko marottes consist of a vertical manipulation rod, on the top of which is a grimacing head, and a horizontal rod that simulates the arms. They are dressed in a long cloth robe".
Medieval developments In 1480, the Giants of Douai tradition began, and it continues in the north of France and in Flanders. "Giant, grotesque figures such as Gayant, Cagenon, Saint Michael and his devil" were used in a festival procession commemorating a French attempt to recapture Douai from the Dutch. After France reclaimed Douai in 1771, the annual procession continued, with the same puppets repurposed, only to be cancelled following the 1789 Revolution and then continued again in 1801.
20th century In New York in 1963 Peter Schumann established the Bread and Puppet Theater, which employs giant puppets and inspired later works by others. By 1967, the company was "protesting against the Vietnam War with rod puppets of impressive size". In Bread and Puppet's 1969 The Cry of the People for Meat, "the nuptial dance of Mother Nature and Uranus was performed by 5-metre-tall rod puppets: the main rod for the head, to which the costume was attached, a rod for each hand and a crew of six manipulators around the puppet itself". Giant puppets have been used in theatre too. In 1964 Edmund Tamiz directed Don Quichotte at the Récamier theatre, Paris, using giant puppets. In 1970 at the Vincennes arsenal, Ariane Mnouchkine's Théâtre du Soleil featured some giant rod puppets. In 1973 Dominique Houdart directed Der Tag des großen Gelehrten Wu, which included "giant linear puppets made from aluminium" gesturing with their own manipulation rods and performing together with actors. Between the 1970s and 1990s the Cumbria-based Welfare State International produced giant puppets for processions. Then in 1990, in the streets of Paris, "some two and a half million spectators gathered in Paris’ Quartier de la Défense to witness huge, exuberantly colourful puppets manipulated to steel band music. As part of a massive festival orchestrated by Jean-Michel Jarre, these immense, mobile skeletons were literally attached to the puppeteers". Giant skeleton puppets have been produced by Processional Arts Workshop from 1998 for New York's Village Halloween Parade. Jean-Luc Courcoult's Royal de Luxe company was started in 1979, but it was in 1993 that the giant marionettes of Le Géant tombé du ciel (or The Giant Who Fell from the Sky) appeared. This involved "a string puppet 9 metres high, encased in mobile scaffolding to which all the points of leverage and manipulation were attached (chords, pulleys, etc). This giant puppet was manipulated by a crowd of "servers" dressed in red livery that jump, pull and generally busy themselves with its levers with perfect coordination". Then in 2000 the same company produced Les Chasseurs de girafes ( or The Giraffe Hunters) in which "the largest giraffe was 12 metres tall, needing twenty manipulators, with six using pneumatic jack handles".
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