Summary

Alternative Name(s): Megalexandros

This puppet was made in the 1960s by the Greek puppeteer and popular artist Abraam (Antonakos) in his Athens workshop, and used in performances in Greece during the 1960s. This and most of the puppets in the collection were brought to Australia by Abraam Antonakas for his performances at the Astor Theatre in Melbourne in 1977. He then left the collection with Dimitri Katsoulis who used them in all his subsequent performances in Victoria and in South Australia from 1978 to 1991. Dimitri Katsoulis migrated to Australia in 1974 to escape a regime that repressed Greek artists. He had trained in Greece with theatre and film companies as an actor and technician. A master of the traditional Greek shadow puppet theatre, his performances explored contemporary issues such as the isolation of migrant women and children. Unable to obtain funding and support, he returned to Greece in 1991, leaving his entire collection to the people of Victoria. It includes 32 shadow puppets and around 170 props, set backdrops and technical tools and stage equipment. Dimitri has since returned to Melbourne and assists the Museum to continue to document this rich art form within both local and international contexts.

Megalexandros [Alexander the Great] is is a character in the centuries-old Greek Shadow Puppet Theatre (Karaghiozis) tradition. He is stately and commands respect. He is just, proud and is protector of the weak and the scorned. Megalexandros features in two or three stories as well as in one comedy. The best known play is 'Megalexandros [Alexander the Great] and the Cursed Snake'. A huge snake appears in the spiderweb-filled cave and spreads fear and death. The bravest men confronted it but lost their lives. In order to save the public, the Vizier (the Veziris - originally a Persian term for a high-ranking political, and sometimes religious, advisor or minister, often to a Muslim monarch such as a Sultan) offered his daughter and many thousands of pounds to whoever could kill it. Megalexandros [Alexander the Great] appears, confronts the snake and in a very fierce battle he kills it with the help of Karaghiozis. Megalexandros [Alexander the Great] leaves. Karaghiozis tells Hatziavatis [another Greek Shadow Puppet Theatre character], who enters and sees the dead snake, that he killed it himself. They take it and go to Sarai, but the Vizier (the Veziris) is under the impression that they are trying to trick him, so he orders Thervenagas another Greek Shadow Puppet Theatre character] to start beating them both up.

Megalexandros [Alexander the Great] is one of the more complex puppets to operate, which is why it was manipulated only by the Master Puppeteer. It is connected by two puppet rods [there are many examples in the collection], one on its shoulder and one on its hand which holds the spear or sword.

Information supplied by Greek Shadow Puppet Theatre master Dimitri Katsoulis, 2007.

Physical Description

An acrylic figure of a man, jointed at the waist, thighs and multiple joints in one arm, which has a leather extension. He wears a Macedonian military uniform of yellow helmet and breastplate, yellow, white and blue tunic and pink leggings. He carries a spear.

Significance

This collection of puppets, props, stage sets, and technical tools and equipment relating to traditional Greek Shadow Puppet Theatre is unique in Australia and rare in international public collections. The history of Greek Shadow Puppet Theatre, its puppet characters and the methodology of its performance has been recorded in partnership with the puppet master to whom the collection belonged. The collection is highly significant both as documentation of an important cross-cultural, centuries-old art form, and as an example of the transnational migration of cultural activity between Greece and Australia. It is a collection which was created and performed in Greece and Australia from the mid to late twentieth century, by two puppet masters, who transported the tradition between two countries. Abraam Antonakos came to Australia in 1977 to perform the puppet theatre and then deposited the puppets with Dimitri Katsoulis, who had migrated to Australia in 1974. Dimitri's story becomes one of migration experience, cultural maintenance and adaptation, and finally return migration and the discontinuance of this cultural art form in Australia.

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