Sootlace Puppet House — Shadow Puppet Cats Reference Sheet

The story of Sootlace Puppet House

A fictional story inspired by the artwork.

The Sootlace cats had cut a splendid paper dragon for opening night. Its neck bent in three places and its tiny whiskers quivered when the puppeteer breathed. Everybody admired it until the lantern was lit. On the screen its shadow looked exactly like a cabbage rolling downhill.

The spotted cat took the puppet apart. She laid the head on a white cloth and moved the jaws one careful notch at a time. In the audience a little girl called out that she liked the cabbage. Her mother hushed her, but behind the screen the drummer was already trying out a rolling rhythm.

They kept the cabbage for the first act. It rolled out of the market, frightened a deer, knocked on the palace gate and demanded an audience with the king. By then the puppeteer had fixed the dragon’s neck. She held it close to the lamp and slowly raised its paper wings behind the round shadow.

The cabbage became a dragon carrying its lunch. The little girl clapped before anybody else understood the joke. Afterward the company pinned two silhouettes in the workshop, one beautifully cut and one perfectly round. New apprentices rehearse with both. The trick is knowing how long an audience will wait for a cabbage to open its wings.

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