Poems or Plays about Dolls/Poppets etc.

Roly

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Hi,

I was wondering if anyone knew of any important/famous plays or poems that either deal with dolls/poppets (etc), mention dolls in a big way, or has dolls as the theme. I already have Ibsen on the list :) They can be from all over the world, but I can only read English fluently so if you give me a non-English poem it'd be great if you can point me to a translation.

Thanks!
 

Drachen Jager

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How far are you stretching, it's not a play, but the Nutcracker is about a doll-like figure.

Guys and Dolls? :tongue
 

benbenberi

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ETA Hoffmann (who wrote the original story The Nutcracker is based on) also wrote a story about a lifesize automaton who comes to life -- I don't know the name of the story, but it's one of the segments in the opera Tales of Hoffmann.
 

StarryEyes

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ETA Hoffmann (who wrote the original story The Nutcracker is based on) also wrote a story about a lifesize automaton who comes to life -- I don't know the name of the story, but it's one of the segments in the opera Tales of Hoffmann.

I read that story in German class last year :) The title is "Der Sandmann", or "The Sandman" in English.
 

mrsmig

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The ballet Coppelia features another life-sized automaton.

Wait Until Dark (a play made into a movie starring Audrey Hepburn) has a heroine-stuffed doll as a major plot point. The movie The Night of the Hunter (starring Robert Mitchum) features a doll stuffed with money.

In poetry, there's "Dolls" by Robert William Service and "Bessie's Song to Her Doll" by Lewis Carroll.
 

Debbie V

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"Mannequin" was a movie. Then there's "Chuckie" and the sequels. In children's, stuff comes to life all the time. "Raggedy Ann", Holly Hobbie, the "Toy Story" characters.

There are musicals that are puppetry based from Avenue Q to The Lion King.
 

Bloo

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the original myth of Pygmalion (not Bernard Shaw's play ;) ) not really a "doll" but a statue that is granted life by the gods, sprung to mind immediately.

Pinacchio (puppet comes to life).

I remember a play from when I was a child about a toy store that comes to life. It was kind of Christmasy, but I don't know what it was called. It didn't leave THAT big of impression on me.

I personally have been waffling on doing a straightforward stage adaption of the Nutcracker, didn't realize Hoffmann had a similar themed story, I might have to look into The Sandman
 

Roly

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Wow! Great suggestions everyone! Some of these I'm banging my head going "what is wrong with me I should have known that one!!!"

Thanks :D I'm going to get to reading/watching!
 

Torill

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(You do know that Ibsen's play 'A Doll's House' is not about dolls at all, right?)
 

books2thesky

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If children's stories are okay, there's "The Steadfast Tin Soldier." And though the main character is a stuffed animal instead of a human-like doll, "The Velveteen Rabbit" might be relevant as well. There's also the tar-baby story from the Bre'r Rabbit stories (here in its original hard-to-read phonetically spelled form), which for bonus multicultural points is very similar to (possibly/probably derived from) an African folktale about how the trickster Anansi managed to catch the fairy Mmoatia using a doll. And lastly, it's not particularly well known except perhaps among Filipino students taking literature classes that use one particular textbook/anthology that contains it...but I'm quite fond of the poem Bringing the Dolls by Merlie Alunan.
 

Alessandra Kelley

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"Little Boy Blue," by Eugene Field, 1888

The little toy dog is covered with dust,
But sturdy and stanch he stands;
And the little toy soldier is red with rust,
And his musket moulds in his hands.
Time was when the little toy dog was new,
And the soldier was passing fair;
And that was the time when our Little Boy Blue
Kissed them and put them there.

"Now, don't you go till I come," he said,
"And don't you make any noise!"
So, toddling off to his trundle-bed,
He dreamt of the pretty toys;
And, as he was dreaming, an angel song
Awakened our Little Boy Blue---
Oh! the years are many, the years are long,
But the little toy friends are true!

Ay, faithful to Little Boy Blue they stand,
Each in the same old place---
Awaiting the touch of a little hand,
The smile of a little face;
And they wonder, as waiting the long years through
In the dust of that little chair,
What has become of our Little Boy Blue,
Since he kissed them and put them there.
 

Buffysquirrel

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There's a story I've heard on the radio a few times, about a man who builds a clockwork dancing partner, and it ends very badly, of course. Umm. Now if I could tell you who wrote it, or the title, that might help?
 

Torill

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How far are you stretching, it's not a play, but the Nutcracker is about a doll-like figure.
E. Hoffman's original fairy tale, illustrated by Maurice Sendak, has been released by Random House.