The Terrible, Adorable Tarasque

Usually our Mummers play–the play-within-a-play in the second part of The Christmas Revels–features a hero fighting some kind of terrible monster. St. George and the dragon, for example.

This year instead of a dragon we have a tarasque. The tarasque is a fearsome beast that ravaged, so the story goes, a town in Provence and was tamed by a young girl. You may recall seeing it carved on a pumpkin.

On Sunday we got our first look at our tarasque’s body–including all six legs. Take a look at this:

Two chorus members put the tarasque through its paces. Photo: Helen Fields

That is one exciting puppet.

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One Reply to “The Terrible, Adorable Tarasque”

  1. I think the towering knight in “The King and the Fool” is still the scariest puppet that Revels displays, and it isn’t just the children in the audience who cower from it. In the two Washington Revels productions of this magnificent show that I have been a part of, I got so deep into my courtier character that once Mark Jaster, playing the heroic Fool, had to caution me, “Dick, I’m the one who has to protect the King, not you.”

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