The Punch and Judy show at Dublin's Wax Museum - loved by children for its raucous humour and plots - was recently made homeless when the venue closed. Róisín Ingle attended one of the final performances
For decades the political correctness brigade - the crowd who did away with the likes of Gollywogs and Lyon's Minstrels - have had it in for Punch. His crime? Being a devious, hook-nosed glove puppet for whom domestic abuse, infanticide and assaults on police officers are all in an afternoon's work. Despite this, the shows have remained a beloved part of British beach and garden fete culture, and in Dublin, until recently, Michael McCormick - otherwise known as Professor Mic Mac - had a home for Punch and his assorted puppet friends in the capital's Wax Museum.
There are around 10 people in Ireland who practise this enduring if beleaguered art and for some strange reason most of them have the surname McCormick. This McCormick saw his first Punch and Judy show just over 60 years ago, as an impressionable four-year-old. "I remember it clearly, we were in Central Park and it made such an impression on me, it must have been implanted in my brain," says the American who has been based in Leitrim for the past five years.
His father, an engineer who worked on the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, where they moved to from New York, made him his first Punch, a miniature Jack-in-the-Box toy. "I started making and performing puppets at the age of 11 as a child in New Mexico, and I came back to Punch and Judy when I was in my twenties. In a strange way I have always looked on it as a kind of calling, something I couldn't ignore."
After working as an art therapist in hospitals, he was discovered performing a puppet show on the streets of Sante Fe and introduced to Jim Henson. He spent much of the next two decades working as a sculptor on movies such as Dark Crystal, Return of the Jedi and Labyrinth, and went on to make aliens and other fantastical creatures for horror movies and television adverts.
John Cronin and Thomas Widger, two young Dublin actors who have developed a fascination with this traditional form of children's entertainment, help bring to life McCormick's grotesque and gloriously shabby creations. They have been friends since they performed together as four-year-olds in the drama school in Dublin run by Widger's mother, Maeve.
"At first it was just a handy job, but I have really grown to love Punch and Judy," says Cronin. "The show is unique and has an energy that you don't find in anything else. When you describe the storyline to people they can't believe it is a children's show. I think Punch was a forerunner to Tarantino's style of cinema actually. Horrible things are happening and everybody is laughing. There are definite similarities."
Those who have visited the Wax Museum, which closed recently and is due to be relocated to Smithfield, will recall that to reach the puppet theatre one had to pass through the "hall of stars" where outdated wax figures of Michael Jackson, Boy George and Madonna stood looking like sad remnants of a forgotten generation.
In the front of the theatre, all gold fringe and red velvet, a group of small children are watching the end of Shrek 2 while they wait for one of the final shows at the original venue to start. Cronin, the charming narrator of the story, emerges from the wings wearing a top hat and a battered red uniform with gold buttons.
Before the show starts, a crow pops up to explain that the show we are about to see is "disrespectful, racist and politically incorrect". Punch, he informs us, is "a reprobate, a scallywag" before urging us to leave the premises immediately. We don't, of course, and soon we are immersed in the amoral world of Punch who, out of sight, "goes to the toilet" which results in the disgusted audience being sprayed with a suspect liquid. From here on, it's downhill all the way.
Punch batters his wife Judy. Judy batters Punch. Punch babysits. Punch throws baby out the window. Punch kills Judy. Punch kills the Holy Man. Punch kills the police man. Punch kills the hangman. And somewhere in the middle there is an incident with a crocodile and some sausages, before our anti-hero cackles off into the wings as pleased as, well, Punch.
The audience of small children can't seem to get enough and incredibly, given the macabre subject matter, Widger says there have never been any complaints from their parents: "We are depicting some pretty awful things, but because they are puppets they seem to get away with it. The children just find it hilarious," he says.
The origins of Punch and Judy are not fully known but can be traced back to the Commedia dell'Arte, and it is thought Punch was originally known as Pulcinella. The show evolved into Punch and Joan, and by the late 19th century, when it could be seen all over Britain, it had morphed into the Punch and Judy spectacle we know and love today.
"A child is perfectly free to despise Mr Punch or to love him," says McCormick. "In many ways he is a paternal figure. We've all had that feeling toward our fathers, where we love and hate them at the same time."
McCormick has his own reason for his lifelong love of Punch. "I think it has to do with my need to have the information out there that the human condition is far worse than we admit. The human condition is hideous, and it doesn't make it any better to sweep things under the carpet," he says.
The fact that Punch is a "complete anarchist, defying authority at every turn" is at the heart of what makes him attractive to children, according to McCormick. "I've never seen kids model their activities on his behaviour, but they do appreciate it. He more than holds his own in the face of all the other entertainment available to children today," he adds. Those who complain about Punch should just look at another anarchic children's show. "Look at the behaviour on The Simpsons. People adore it but if you look closely it's a Punch and Judy show for TV. Homer, like Punch, is dumb and outspoken. One way or another, he throws Bart out the window every show. Like Punch, it's based on total anarchy. It doesn't pull any punches.
"Punch and Judy is one of the only things I know that looks directly and honestly at that side of life. I think it is good for children to see it in a non-shocking way. Out of all children's entertainment The Simpsons come closest to that idea. Punch, for me, is a primitive form of abstract theatre that reminds us of something we know is out there, but we are not quite sure what it is."
It could, of course, just be a rollicking good slice of children's entertainment for kids who have outgrown Barney. And with the closure of the Wax Museum, all Punch needs now is a new home.
Prof Mic Mac's Matchbox Circus is available for parties, weddings, garden fetes or school visits. No event too large or small. For information and bookings contact 087-8304746, 086-6067301 or 071-9856873