Grandmother

Five episodes of I Kosekroken were produced, 20 minutes each in length. In the first programme, Fingerleker (“Finger games”), the presenters used their hands and fingers to perform. In another episode, Dukketeater på loftet ("Puppet theatre in the attic"), they took away the puppetry stage and used clothes, chests and other objects in the attic as a backdrop.

Bjørg and Arne Mykle were primary school teachers. They had learned puppetry and puppet making from Arne’s father Agnar and his wife Jane Mykle (Arne’s stepmother). The younger Mykle generation would later take over their parents’ puppets and productions from Agnar and Jane Mykle.

SOURCES:
Helgesen, Anne: Descriptions for the TV puppet exhibition "Alle tiders barndomshelter" ("Childhood heroes through the generations"), Slottsfjellsmuseet/Figurfestspillene, 19–28 January 2024.

Helgesen, Anne: Animasjonen – Figurteatrets velsignelse og forbannelse. Norsk figurteaterhistorie ("Animation – a blessing and a curse for puppetry: A history of Norwegian puppetry"), PhD dissertation in Theatre Studies, Oslo University 2003, p.139

Ownership: Mykle’s descendants / on loan from Asker Museum

Transmitted to Sceneweb: 06.02.2024.

The glove puppets  produced by Jane Mykle were generally made using the same method. The technique is described in detail in the book Dukketeater! (“Puppetry”; Gyldendal, 1954) that she wrote with her husband Agnar Mykle.

The technique is as follows: the heads are formed in clay or plasticine. Newspaper or cotton gauze is moulded around the head with glue. When the moulded head (and neck) has dried it is cut in half, and the clay or plasticine is removed before it is glued together again. Any uneven spots can be repaired with plaster, before the head is primed, painted and given character. The puppet must have an undergarment that is made to fit the puppeteer’s hand, so that all the fingers have a function: the head is controlled by the index finger, the thumb controls the puppet’s left hand (on a puppet held on the right hand) and the other three fingers control the puppet’s right hand. The head and the undergarment are joined together at the neck.

The overgarment, whose appearance and details give the puppet character, is also joined to the neck. Grandmother wears a creamy yellow blouse and a waistcoat or similar, with an black skirt and an apron with holes in - giving the impression that she lives a simple life, possibly in poverty. 

The above description is based on photographs, and detailed knowledge of the Mykle family’s glove puppet tradition. 

The construction/production of the puppet, in the Mykle tradition, is described above. The figure has to fit the performer’s hand well so that the figure can be animated well. It should not be heavy and the materials that form the body should be soft and easy for the puppeteer’s hand to move. A heavy puppet made with stiff materials is difficult to animate and the performer’s arm will quickly become tired.

Performing with puppets requires small movements – only a few centimetres to move a puppet’s hand; it is really theatre in miniature. Glove puppetry can be wonderful when the performer is an expert at his/her craft.

The above description is based on photographs, and detailed knowledge of the Mykle family’s glove puppet tradition. 

Agnar and Jane Mykle stayed in Paris in 1947/48, studying puppetry with the well-known artist Marcel Temporal. He revived the popular French puppetry tradition, also known as the Guignol tradition, which featured standard characters and vividly temperamental acting, mainly with glove puppets.

The younger Mykle generation, Bjørg and Arne Mykle, started to perform in Oslo’s Frogner Park, at the summer flower exhibitions called “Form og Flora” in the 1960s, and at the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History (Norsk Folkemuseum) on Bygdøy. Their productions Little Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel alternated with each other.