Puppet shows have been around for centuries. The Public Library in Bruges contains a 13th-century manuscript with an image of a puppet show. They were a means of popular entertainment for a very long time, sometimes moralising, but often also coarse and borderline obscene. A puppeteer’s main purpose was to make people laugh, and earn some money in the process.
During the 1930s, a new generation discovered the pleasure and expressiveness of puppet shows. They included teachers, pastors and (cabaret) artists who wanted to inject new life into the popular tradition of puppet shows and raise them to a higher artistic level. However, a moralising lesson was never far away. The new generation of puppeteers had nothing less in mind than the ‘cultural education’ of the people.
The Bruges Den Uyl Puppet Show was a perfect fit for this purpose. It was established in 1942 by pastor Jules Faes with the slogan ‘For religion, language and the nation’. During the early years, Den Uyl was recognised as one of the most progressive and best-equipped puppet theatres in Flanders, with a reputation for beautifully carved wooden puppets, artful decors and a – for that time – impressive sound and lighting system. The puppets spoke the Dutch equivalent of ‘the King’s English’.
Pastor Faes was a committed supporter of the Flemish cause and named his puppet theatre after Tijl Uylenspiegel, a legendary figure which initially still symbolised Belgian independence. However, during the 1930s, supporters of the Flemish cause turned him into a Flemish hero. Tijl also appears in the Den Uyl Puppet show, but not in a leading role. The latter is reserved for Stekvooie, who represents the popular character of Bruges. It clearly highlights the clash between a developing Flemish identity and a deeply embedded local identity.
The Den Uyl Puppet Show also illustrates the zeitgeist in a less favourable manner. Some plays bear witness to an ingrained sense of anti-Semitism, widespread in the 1930s and 1940s. The figure of Isaac the Jew is the stereotypical image of a Jew: with a large hooked nose, long beard and black hat. He is depicted as being avaricious, a gold digger and bad-tempered. Remarkably, the Den Uyl Puppet Show continued to stage the figure of Isaac in the years after the war.
Around the mid-1950s, the first generation of puppeteers decided to call it a day. Ten years later, Den Uyl acquired a second identity as the company theatre of the La Brugeoise metal factory. There were decidedly fewer performances than during the first period, mostly focused on children. The puppets of Den Uyl performed for the last time in 1982.