Stick puppet, Die Lieblichen, eine nach der anderen: Die romantische Sirene,

1951

Fred Schneckenburger designed over seventy marionettes and hand puppets as metaphorical figures with telling attributes. According to contemporary witnesses, they were meant as a “stab in the plump midsection of bourgeois folly.” Schneckenburger lent his own voice to the figure of Kasper, his alter ego, whose sensitive movable nose sniffed out the burning questions of the day. A successful businessman and managing director of the sandpaper company SIA in Frauenfeld during the week, he crafted his figures on weekends in Zurich under the artist name “Schnegg,” breathing life into them with a variety of individual features. Using sewing notions and objets trouvés, he created a universe of materialized feelings, expressed in critical and sometimes sarcastic texts played back during performances from a tape recording. The characters’ voices were spoken primarily by actors from the Cabaret Cornichon. The romantic siren with her flirtatious eyes made of mussel shells and a demonic grin revealing two rows of animal teeth was played by Voli Geiler; Margrit Rainer lent her voice to Das ewig Weibliche (The Eternal Female) and Die echte Moderne (The Real Modern Woman), Walter Morath sang the lament of the war invalid La gueule cassée, while Franz Wurm in the role of the Polizist (Police Officer) tried to force a parking ticket on Death. Schneckenburger himself controlled the figures with the help of Luzzi Wolgensinger and other assistants, with the puppets appearing before a screen without background scenery. The puppet cabaret was related in spirit to the Schweizerischen Marionettentheater, whose successor organization, Zürcher Marionetten, Schneckenburger directed for a short time from 1963. (Sabine Flaschberger)