What are marottes?

Marottes are really an unofficial term, applicable to a type of rod puppet. These puppets are operated from below, either with the puppeteer visible and/or sitting on the floor, or with the puppeteer hidden by a ‘flat’ (theatre term for false wall). This is unlike table-top puppetry, where the usual performance style is to work from behind the puppet, holding the rods at right angles to the puppeteer’s body. A very easy way to imagine a marotte is the jester’s stick, the one with the little jester head at the top of a stick. Example video at the bottom of the post.

The jester holding its marotte. Image by dno1967b.

A true puppet example of a marotte would be wayang golek, the Indonesian style of rod puppetry. A lot of Asian puppetry includes use of marottes, so the style isn’t restricted to medieval pranksters. Technically speaking, the large parade puppets made out of bamboo and calico (and lantern puppets) that you hold up with large bamboo rods can also be called marottes. The title image (click on it for a larger view) is of some parade puppets displayed at the 2004 Chuncheon Puppet Festival in Korea.

And that is also how marottes work: one rod comes from beneath the puppet (attached to the body or running through the body to the head), and rods attached to the hands (at the wrist) for additional movement. The arms are usually jointed to allow for fluid movement, whilst the puppet usually has a costume that flows instead of legs. The puppeteer will hold the two arm rods in one hand, much like muppeteers do. 

Like I said above, this term is not an official one: but some puppeteers have used it on occasion to describe very simplistic rod puppets. In my mind, it helps to distinguish between the more Westernised (bastardised bunraku) table-top puppetry style, and the style of working rod puppets from beneath. So keep that in mind as you watch the following video of a Chengdu (Chinese) performance.