Puppets on Trial (Courtroom Drama)
Straight after the performance of The Lost Forest the company can offer an optional question and answer session to the audience – for up to 15 minutes, to discuss how the puppets move, and which bits of the story were true or otherwise.
During the Courtroom drama workshop, the baddie of the show, Endorro, and other characters from the show are put on trial.
Participants are split into groups to discuss questions for each of the character/s: Endorro (the logging baron), Jabrig (his employee who eventually leaves the job), Semar and his son Dewala (the forces of good) and a character who didn’t appear in the show: Bob, a local consumer of the global wood products.
The relevant puppet character/s appear for cross-examining with questioners using a microphone in a dramatic courtroom situation.
This time we learn, for example, how the wood cutter’s home is flooded because of the tree felling; how he survives by developing eco-tourism (after refusing to burn the last bit of forest and losing his job); how little he was paid compared to his boss Endorro; how Endorro is one of just a handful of barons who acquire huge riches; how he earns this money and the real impact on the environment. But are the other characters guilt-free?
In this trial, with participants acting as both cross-examiners and jury, many questions are raised about the verdict at the end and important facts come to light about everyone’s different levels of blame, how to save the rainforest – and why it is so important.
