The Theatricality of Objects: Object Theatre Beyond the Puppet

The term ‘object theatre’ emerges from the world of puppets. It describes a form of puppetry that utilises found, or real, objects in puppeteering, to create anthropomorphic characters or to symbolise figures, places, landscapes or metaphorical ideas. In this configuration, ‘objects’ become puppets. In this article, I want to suggest an expansion of the term ‘object theatre’ as a way of extending how theatre makers and audiences might speculate on the activity and agency of objects beyond this particular mode of representation.