ABSTRACT
The national audience of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was meant to project the official "plot" of tragedy and redemption enacted before them onto the events that they observed in their daily lives. The documentary component of Handspring's production consisted of verbatim excerpts from TRC testimony, most of it recited by wooden puppets. The grotesque dramaturgy of Ubu and the Truth Commission makes it a counter-play to the TRC, in part because it evokes conflicting media-specific concepts of truth. Like documents, puppets are manufactured objects that stand in for people. The emotional dynamics of a puppet performance become more complicated when spectators also have to account for visible puppeteers who share the stage with the puppets. It is understandable, given the play's multiple layers of ambiguity that audience responses to the play would widely vary. Taylor suggests that she hoped the audience might be shocked into guilt by their amusement at Ubu's antics.
