Brussels' 200 year-old puppet theater is still going strong
Now boasting the European Heritage Label, the theater puts on four shows every week.
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Sometimes all a full-grown adult wants to do is watch some puppets tell a story. (Particularly when said adult has been spending their days neck deep in electoral conundrums.)
Can’t relate? Maybe not, but I recently went to see a show at the Toone Puppet Theater in the center of Brussels and the room was packed – with attendees of all ages, tourists and Brussels residents alike. So if you’re not a fan, odds are you know someone who is.
A count I took in the dark yielded about 70 audience members. The first couple of rows were full of children, while the row right in front of me was full of grandparents, who spent most of the show laughing.
“Toone” is the nickname of Antoine, the founder. The mantle of Toone, which is what they’re now calling the main puppeteer, has been passed down from generation to generation leading to present day’s Nicolas Geal, who is now the 8th Toone. He does the voices, while a cast of student puppeteers help him bring the show to life.
Established in 1830 (the same year the Belgian Revolution took place), the puppet theater used to be a popular form of education throughout the 19th century, when literacy was not ubiquitous. It presumably also offered some entertainment to the workers fueling Belgium’s industrial revolution at the time.
Today, it serves as a piece of history and a form of entertainment. It has just been bestowed the European Heritage Label, a cultural preservation programme spearheaded by the Commission, which this newsletter has covered before.
Heritage preservation, keeping a society’s essence alive through time, is crucial. Customs such as this one must be looked at through the lens of cultural relativity — as a product of a different society, trying to understand it from the natives’ point of view.
Still, some degree of comparison to our present day must also be applied, otherwise we would be denying that a society can progress over time, becoming more educated, prosperous and more inclusive.
In 2019, the Natural History Museum in Manhattan made a clever move for which it was widely praised: they publicly acknowledged that one of the dioramas their institution so proudly displayed, depicting a meeting between some Dutch settlers and a few Native American leaders, was in fact historically inaccurate.
The museum decided against taking the display down, opting instead to place correctional labels on top of the protective glass — telling its audience the display was “filled with historical inaccuracies and clichés of Native representation” (I wrote about it for The New York Times).
By opening up a dialogue, it allowed New York to analyze its historical progress while also appreciating the intended effect at the time of the display’s creation.
If seen through such a lens, the Toone Puppet theater and museum can also provide an interesting lesson in Belgian history. By changing the rule of female characters’ voices being creating high-pitched by a male puppeteer, as well as retiring a couple outdated puppets, the Toone theater can acknowledge it is now putting on these shows in a different era.
You can see the show every Thursday, Friday and Saturday. On June 13th, the Revolution will end to make room for The Three Musketeers, followed by Faust — which will be an operetta, believe it or not.
Artist of the week
Belgian artist Fabrice Magnee rescues lose nails off of construction sites (particularly from the renovations of centuries-old old buildings) and turns them into art. With construction work being such a popular pastime in Brussels, there is no shortage of material.
What’s going on?
The Zinneke Parade, a biennial celebration that’s been taking place in Brussels for about 20 years, is back on June 1st. (Zinneke is a Brussels dialect term for someone who lives in Brussels.)
Works by award-winning English artist Tracey Emin are now on display at Xavier Hufkens gallery in Brussels. The show is set to close at the end of July.
Chloe Wise, another well-known contemporary artist, has also opened up a show in Brussels at the Almine Rech gallery. Set to close May 25th.
The prestigious Queen Elisabeth competition continues with its finale at the Bozar, this week.
Speak soon,
Ana