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Some Hungarian articles refer to Hungarian puppetry dating back to 16th and 17th century, starting with traveling and fairground performers. Most sources point towards that Hungarian puppetry was the reimagination of Sicilian Pulcinella character. Starting with the traveling performance over the centuries, most specifically during the 20th century Hungarian puppetry became the form of entertainment for the poor. 

One family (Korngut/ Kemény) was famous for their puppet performances with a character called Vitéz László. They opened their first performance in Budapest in 1927, but after loosing their father, Henrik and Mátyás only started playing again in 1945. Gross talks about the advantage of being born into a family of puppeteers in regard to the Tchantchès, which is exactly the case for Kemény Henrik and his family. The importance of traditions globally a common philosophy among puppeteers, “when you ask a puppeteer why he does something and he answers “C’est la tradition””(Gross 2001, 103) for the French and for the Hungarian puppeteer Kemény Henrik is “Tradiciók miatt”. 

“Tricksters appear in the tales of many cultures, and their presence helps to illustrate how folklore performances and performers can challenge or even overturn existing social systems and structures” (Sims and Stephens 2011, 157) as we observe this in Vitéz László. Even though Vitéz László is a puppetry show intended to entertain children, nevertheless the children are accompanied by their parents. The hidden political and social messages are for the parents. Kemény Henrik’s narratives and folk stories gave hope to the people during hard times like World War II., the aftermath of it and during the oppression of a socialist regime. For example,The Budapest Puppet Theater is the biggest performing theatre in Central-Europe and opened its doors in 1949. The puppet theatre’s moto is that puppetry is not for a specific age group, but it’s an ageless genre. 

In Vitéz László’s adventures Kemény pulls from Hungarian folk tales but also creates his own narrative. Kemény uses the “puppetry language” and voice modifiers in his performances. Not only Kemény who uses voice modifiers, but it is a global characteristic of puppetry. Proschan mentions in Puppet Voices and Interlocutors: Language in Folk Puppetrythat puppeteers that one “can rely on non-instrumental distort as falsetto and growling, nasal speech, or accents” (Proschan 1981, 540). Within every culture, there are intricate nuances that only natives understand fully, for example the comical accent that Vitéz László speaks with. “Infectious punning is also very common with Vitéz László, who gets into hopeless linguistic misunderstandings, as, for example when he confuses ‘malom’ (mill), and ‘majom’(monkey)” among many other humorous instances. (McCormick and Pratasik 2005, 187). 

Resembling the various European adaptations, Vitéz László is a wooden, glove puppet with a comical look and a slightly deformed body.The carved wooden puppet hair is painted, its linen scarf is red, and its nose is pointed. Always wears a red ornate dress with black boots. It's eyes are blue and the face is smiling naively. Its most important features are big mouth, shrewdness, constant disobedience, fierce struggle and quick recovery from situations. His most important weapon is a pancake pan which he got from his grandmother.   

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Polichinelle,[1] ca. 1680 by French artist Nicolas Bonnart. The first of a set of five etchings entitled Five Characters from the Commedia dell’Arte. Etching with hand coloring on laid paper.

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Szentendre, Hungary July 7th, 1985.

Kemény Henrik and Vitéz László puppetry performance.

Photo: Benkõ Imre

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Once Upon A Time: Forty Hungarian

Folk-Tales. Illyes, Gyula, Editor

Published by Corvina Press, 1964

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