`Four Little Girls' proves puppetry not just for children

By Yenni Kwok

JAKARTA (JP): Pablo Picasso's play Four Little Girls is about games and fantasies of four little girls, but it is no play for little girls.

The play, which combines puppetry, dance and play, talks about the facts of growing up, an experience a little girl has not yet had, but something a young woman has understood.

Director Ariette Taylor expressed her surprise that media promotions stated the show as being for children, and unsurprisingly the majority of the 200 in the audience which attended last Sunday performance were parents with their young children.

"It's been a big mistake," Taylor said after the show, "The show was not suitable for children, it was made for adults even though there are children in it. Some of the acts are too frightening for children."

One of the five puppeteers, Andrew Hansen, explained the possible reason for the misunderstanding by saying "Puppetry is usually for children, therefore it is understandable that most people think this show is for children."

Hansen added, "However, it is a good experience for children to see adults' theater, though I am not sure whether they understand the dreams and the nightmares."

The show was opened with a single white paper doll "floating" on the stage. Then, from the paper doll, another paper doll appears. One girl is born from another, until there are four of them in number.

The white paper dolls are symbols of the little girls' souls, said Taylor, who is a freelancing editor for the Theater. The birth of one from another symbolized the likeness of the little girls' characters. They are one, and rarely people see them differently.

They giggle together whether they play hide-and-seek or fantasize together. "We must make as much noise as possible," one of the girls said, screaming in a childish manner.

The four little girls are anonymous, they are symbols of little children, any children. Picasso names them First Little Girl (Tara Roulston), Second Little Girl (Juliette Hanafie), Third Little Girl (Chloe Armstrong) and Fourth Little Girl (Dana Gishen on first and third night, and Katie Miscevic on second and closing night).

Difficult

Although the little girls introduced themselves on the stage,, it was still difficult for the audience, especially those who sat at the back, to distinguish the girls during this 75-minute play.

The girls mostly talked, without any efforts to move their bodies. Thus, the audience hardly knew which of the little girls screamed and introduced herself as "First Little Girl," "Second Little Girl," and so on.

The play took a style of "stream of consciousness." They played hide-and-seek. And the audience watched their dreams and fantasies flow as the girls tried to find a refuge amidst the seeker's screams, "Coming....."

The girls fantasized with the sun, birds, goats, and centaurs in the black, dark background. They aren't afraid of anything, as one girl said, "I am not afraid of dying. I don't want to grow up, though."

Then another voice asked, "Why?" "Many things," the girl replied, "people will laugh at you when you are pregnant because you get fat."

However the girls could not escape nature's call of maturity. The Fourth Little Girl, who was the eldest, was the first to experience this.

The play symbolized her step to maturity through her encounter with a horse and an eagle, both being symbols of masculinity, Taylor explained. The Fourth Little Girl first called up the wild horse and finally tamed and embraced him. She also befriended a black eagle, which later pulled her dress off -- an action symbolizing sexuality.

The experience of the Fourth Little Girl represented every girl's introduction to adolescence. The Fourth Little Girl examined her naked body, half curiously, half shyly.

The three other little girls, on the other hand, had no interest in growing up at all. The scene from the Fourth Little Girl shifted to the three little girls who were still jumping and screaming numbers on the bed. They cast the Fourth Little Girl out of their group, and their whispers filled the air as the Fourth Little Girl wandered alone in her purple gown.

Universal

Her experience is common and universal. Remember the first girl in your school who was the first to step into adolescence? Remember how she had to endure loneliness while the other girls gossiped about her difference?

But the three other little girls prove to be susceptible to the calls of nature. After their encounters with hate and their experiments of the adult world, in this case posing in swimsuits in front of the camera, they gradually learnt to appreciate adulthood.

The play is not about four "Peter Pan" girls. None of the girls remained immature. Instead all of them surrendered to adulthood. This is symbolized by the scene of the eagles carrying the naked girls.

All the girls then dressed in gowns and burned the paper dolls, which are symbols of the little girls' souls.

The play, which is part of "Australia Today Indonesia '94" also pertains some of Picasso's styles. The stage was decorated with four Picasso's cubical faces. The forms of animals on the stage, such as goats, horses and eagles, are unique of Picasso's style. Even one of the girl's dancing movements imitated the human characteristics in Picasso's paintings, with arms and legs forming 90-degree angles.

Peace and war

Besides painting, this Spanish artist also did two theater works. His Four Little Girls also seems to reflect the on-going cycles of peace and war.

He wrote this play in 1948, shortly after World War II. Taylor said Picasso was watching two little girls playing, and was impressed by their joy and happiness. Yet he was pessimistic about peace after the World War II being forever. He realized that, as children would turn into adults, peace would turn into war.

Handspan Theater is an Australian puppet or visual theater company. This Melbourne-based theater company's visit to Indonesia was the first, but they have previously toured the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Japan, China, USA, Colombia, and many more.

Hansen said that this is also their first work with children. "Sometimes (the children) played or slept when they were not supposed too," said Hansen, "But we also think that they were very professional. They rehearsed to make it so perfect."