Marionettes a’ la planchette, or jig puppets in English, have been
a European street entertainment for centuries. No one knows their
origins as they seemed to be all over the continent and most likely
made it to the shores of America as well. A fully articulated
marionette, it has a single string through the chest that attaches to
the performers knee while the other end loops onto an upright.
The puppet then dances on a wooden board while the musician plays.
The string does tend to eventually break so in the 19th century it was
replaced with a wooden stick (known as limberjacks) but this lost the
ability to play an instrument at the same time. They can still be found
on the streets of European cities today. Robert performs with them at
historic sites and Irish/Celtic festivals using a variety of characters and
instruments.
