Suspension of Disbelief, Marionettes & Melodramatic Suspense

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) and Heinrich von Kleist (1771-1811)


I. Suspension of Disbelief and the Suspended Performer

In Biographia Literaria (1817), chapter 14, Samuel Taylor Coleridge introduces his most famous concept: Suspension of Disbelief. This is probably the most widespread, popular explanation of how it is that we can accept the reality of fictions presented onstage or other genres so much that they move us to real emotions. Coleridge offered the supremely romanticist explanation that we are able to access true feelings as spectators because we suspend our rational faculties that tell us it’s all make-believe. It may not be the best objective explanation of how plays work, but Coleridge’s idea of “suspension of disbelief” connects theatre to a major trope of romanticism.

Suspension thematizes gravity; that is to say, our earth-boundedness. Intimations of the tragic attend suspension insofar as falling to earth is always imanent. If the suspended performer falls, if the bridge collapses, it is not entirely shocking. We always knew it could happen, and may in fact be surprised in retrospect that we had allowed ourselves to imagine otherwise; that we had so successfully suspended our disbelief. The good characters in melodrama operate in a state of suspense from which they can only be delivered by divine providence or the justice of human institutions.

And of course, suspension also describes the techniques of certain forms of puppetry that were especially popular in the late 18th and early 19th century: marionettes.

One can consider different styles of puppetry in terms of the distance between the performer and the puppet or character image. Hand puppets, for example, (such as most muppets), use very little distance. The hand of the operator (i.e. demiurge) moves the puppet directly. Projected puppets (from shadow puppets to online avatars) have considerably more distance, i.e. greater mediation, though this may vary depending on the technology.

What Kleist captures in his essay “On the Marionette Theatre” is the subjective perception of suspension as sublime grace vis-à-vis manipulation (i.e. conscious human behavior). This is a perception that does not extend to forms of object performance that do not rely on suspension (neither muppets nor shadow puppets produce this experience), but it is a perception frequently experienced in relation to dance and one that often plays a role in our spiritual receptions of nature.
Think about the wonder we experience at suspension in nature. Cottonwood tufts and leaves wafting through the air on a fall day. Snowflakes drifting down or being blown about. The way a bird appears motionless, suspended in the wind.



Consider what is fascinating about seeing a marionette undergo a metaphysical/psychological reckoning in this opening sequence of "Being John Malkovich" (1999) with marionettes by Phillip Huber

II. Fascination with puppets, marionettes and automata in the age of revolution

In the midst of the romanticist movement, many of the leading theatre figures, especially in Germany, became fascinated with puppet and marionette theatre. They idealized childhood experiences of seeing puppet theatre, wrote philosophical treatises about puppet theatre, wrote works for puppet theatre, and even thought about puppets in writing some of their major works for live actors, like Goethe’s Faust. This might seem like a minor diversion in the history of theatre, but it’s important for a few reasons:

a. this early fascination with puppets would return in the avant-garde at the end of the 19th century with the symbolists (Edward Gordon Craig) and Alfred Jarry whose approaches to puppets would carry an interest into the twentieth century.

b. a significant way of dismantling the distinction between high and low culture and the supposed superiority of “adult” entertainment that coincides with Herder’s notion of a national culture rooted in popular folk traditions.-- primitivism

c. a way of reviving medieval and “oriental” theatrical techniques and aesthetics within the context of a new modern theatre—the gothic and orientalist aesthetics

d. an insight into how romanticist mysticism, spirituality and metaphysics translated into theatrical aesthetics and performance techniques.

For all of you who have seen or been involved, and the two of you who have actually been suspended in PittRep's current production of Angels in America: Perestroika, think about whether any of these issues get at aspects of that experience. Why is it so wonderful to see actors flown above the stage?