On the Marionette Theatre (1810)(Über das Marionettentheater)
by Heinrich von Kleist
In this renowned essay, released in December 1810 in the daily newspaper “Berliner Abendblätter”, Heinrich von Kleist constitutes his principal theme: Are human beings guided by reason or sense?
Kleist reflects the conversation with a ballet dancer who is adored by the audience because of his gracefulness. The narrator is surprised about meeting the dancer several times at a Marionette Theatre. The artist explains to be fascinated by the natural grace of the puppets’ movements and draws the conclusion that there is natural grace that becomes manifest in total absence of awareness. Thus you can find perfect grace and naturalness either with someone who acts as unselfconscious as a child or with someone who is able to control his or her behaviour by total rational control.
This fictive dialogue is interspersed with stage directions and can be seen as poetical in-between, combining theory and poetry.
Über das Marionettentheater
Ich sagte ihm, daß ich erstaunt gewesen wäre, ihn schon mehrere Male in einem Marionettentheater zu finden, das auf dem Markte zusammengezimmert worden war, und den Pöbel, durch kleine dramatische Burlesken, mit Gesang und Tanz durchwebt, belustigte.
On the Marionette Theatre
One evening in the winter of 1801 I met an old friend in a public park. He had recently been appointed principal dancer at the local theatre and was enjoying immense popularity with the audiences. I told him I had been surprised to see him more than once at the marionette theatre which had been put up in the market-place to entertain the public with dramatic burlesques interspersed with song and dance.
