Miranda

Miranda is Prospero's daughter, "a defintitely eartly girl, blessed with the clear eyes of one who has not seen anybody but her father and Caliban", according to the production's playbill. Caliban is Prospero's slave.

Miranda was played by Marianne Edvardsen. She also played the role of Trinculo.

Sceneweb refers to the other puppets registered from the production. These are Trinculo and Alonso, the king of Naples. 

SOURCES:

Oslo Nye Teater (Oslo New Theatre). Playbill from the production The Tempest. 

Donated by: Oslo Nye Teater (Oslo New Theatre).

Transported 05.08.2020.

Miranda's head was likely cut from Styrofoam, a light-weight plastic isolation material that is easily formed. It was fortified with paper and glue, possibly silk paper, after which it was primed and painted. Her head of hair was a large wig made from synthetic material. Her facial features were marked, and her eyes filled with expression.

Miranda's dress was made from brocade, velvet, and silk fabrics. She had an aristocratic look, with elements from a renaissance costume, such as a high collar, large puff sleeves and a crinoline skirt.

Miranda was constructed with a handle fastened to the back of her head. This was what the puppeteer held on to and steered the puppet by. She also had a joint between her neck and her shoulders, so that her head could be moved in different directions. Her upper body was small and narrow, and her arms hung loose. Her dress had posy parts at the top of her sleeves/puff sleeves, whereas her lower arms were very thin. Her hands and fingers were also very thin, likely made from bendable metal string covered by a rubber material. There was likely a steering rod fastened to the puppet's elbow.

To a large degree, the puppeteer held the puppet in front of her own body, and thus she was partly hidden from the audience. This construction also allows the puppeteer to be visible with the puppet.

Miranda is categorised as a Bunraku-inspired puppet. Bunraku is the name of traditional Japanese puppetry, in which the puppeteer holds the puppet in front of his or her own body. (For more information on Bunraku, you may have a look at and read about the puppet Yukiko).

In the playbill, the head of the theatre, Kjetil Bang-Hansen, wrote the following:

"The Tempest is likely Shakespeare's last play. His farewell to the theatre. The wizard breaks his wand, leaves the stage and withdraws, to reality.

It is a play filled with poetry, melancholy, cruelty and magic. And if there is a Shakespeare play suitable for puppetry, this must be it. On Prospero's island (Prospero is a wizard and the legitimate duke of Milan, Sceneweb's comment), air spirits and earthly spirits live side by side. Here are humans in all the puppets."

Barthold Halle wrote the following in the playbill:

"We have thought of Prospero as a kind of self-portrait, and Prospero's island is the theatre. The bard looks back at themes he has been through at an earlier time: The destructive effect of power on the one in power, the ever-new possibilities of pure love, the humour and force and dirt among common people. It is as if he says: 'I know all about this, I know my art and I am rightly famous, but in the perspective of eternity, this is strangely insignificant'. 

We perform The Tempest with puppets, and it fits our reading of the play. The puppets really come into being the moment they are put in motion, used by their lord and master."