ABSTRACT
Heinrich von Kleist work is printed in a special magazine-interlude which was published in 1918-1919 The Marionette, though Daniel Craig was probably aware of Kleist's thesis on marionettes as early as 1908, when he formulated his own ideas on acting in his Ubermarionette essay. The Mask is literally peopled by puppets in all forms and from all possible backgrounds. Javanese and middle-eastern shadow puppets, Burattini, Bunraku, Punch and Judy and fully-mechanised marionette's all feature. Puppets appear both as part of a glorious theatrical tradition and as a proposal for the theatre of the future. The Marionette presents itself as a Commedia-type interlude of lazzi between the more serious acts of The Mask. Craig presents his readers with the first English translation of Kleist's essay by Amedeo Foresti in The Marionette. The work of Craig on the theory of theatre in general, and on marionettes in particular, may be seen as springing from the idealistic Romantic tradition.
