Puppetry isn’t all fun and games. It’s got a long history of being used as a means of political satire and in Burma, that got two puppeteers and comedians arrested back in 1996.
U Pa Pa Lay and his cousin U Lu Zaw, “The Moustache Brothers”, spent seven years in jail, while Amnesty International have campaigned for their release. Their crime? Performing a routine in which they joked about their governments and Myanmar’s generals.
UNIMA, the international puppetry organization, reports that the Moustache Brothers have been re-arrested.
“We strongly urge you to denounce this situation to the media of your country and write to your Ministry for Foreign Affairs so that they take an interest in these artists’ situation and their release!” UNIMA International: 18 Oct 2007
There’s no puppetry in this clip, but you can see the dozens of gorgeous puppets hanging on the wall behind them.
And in this clip they talk about being arrested.
Via PuppetVision
