You cannot find Punch and Judy shows much anymore. This is why their traditional narrative must remain. Even back in the day I got annoyed by the modernisation. I kicked off when the policeman mentioned football players and TV programmes. This is when I often got removed.
How unfair. Punch and Judy is a traditional show, and those characters go back so far. The Devil. The Judge. Mr Punch himself. Timeless figures of shared culture.
Something runs deeper too.
It was my grandmother who showed me the origins. That the puppets are a shadow of the true tradition. Why Punch and Judy are associated with the seaside for a reason.
Ignore the daytime shows. You have to venture out under the moonlight, and draw a rectangle at the point where the sea meets the sand. You must use a cloth coloured green and purple rather than yellow and red. The support structure for the booth work better if made of animal bones, but wicker will do.
Choose a beach with seaweed, so that you have materials to twist and shape. Once you get your eye in, the figures appear with ease. I am always pleased with my Punch hump.
Grandmother wrote her script on vellum. The core narrative is there. But this is an ancient text, and in places the words do not make sense.
The judge decides your fate. The crocodile wants to eat you. You must battle with the devil. But if you can stand their trials, you can find something far beyond the limits of human drama.
If a child finds the remains of your booth in the morning, they will applaud, but not understand why.
The answers exist in a red and yellow tent by the side of the sea.
