PARIS Two hundred puppet-show companies from Europe, north and south America, Asia and Africa took part in the 12th World Festival of Puppet Theaters which began on Friday at Charleville-Mezieres, close to France's border with Belgium, AFP reported.
The small town which is home to the National School for the Art of Puppetry will be taken over for 10 days by puppet companies of every stripe presenting a variety of performances including glove- and wire-puppet shows, shadow-play theater and the ancient art of bunraku, the highly sophisticated puppet theater imported into Japan from China more than 1,300 years ago.
This year's festival, which opened with a show by the Spanish Troupe Peb Bou based on the work of the Catalan poet Joan Brossa, includes no fewer than 19 exhibitions of which some are devoted to displays of Asian and African masks and marionettes. Another provides a retrospective of the careers of Franca Rame and Dario Fo.
The Marionettes and Therapy Association has organized a symposium on the theme "From a Tired Body to a Built Body".
The festival "has been modeled on the universal exhibitions with participants grouped by continent, each with its own pavilion.
There is also a special pavilion for shows for children up to the age of seven," says festival founder Jacques Felix.
More than 100.000 tickets were sold at the last World Puppet Festival at Charleville-Mizihres in 1997.
This year's event is budgeted at 10 million francs (1.3 million dollars).