Martin Powell (puppetry)

Martin Powell, (fl. 1709–1720; d. 1729) was an Irish master puppeteer and puppet show impresario, who put on a repertoire of satirical and parodical marionette shows that invariably featured the Punch character. He drew audiences first at provincial towns such as Bath, then moving his venue to London. His theatre (dubbed "Punch's Opera" or "Punch's Theatre") established itself in early 1710 at its first location, at the north end of St. Martin's Street intersected by Litchfield St., not quite in Covent Garden. But by 1711 he relocated the theatre to the galleries of Covent Garden, at Little Piazza, opposite St. Paul's Church.

He has been credited with establishing the stock form of the Punch and Judy plays.Charles Magnin, the learned author of the Histoire des Marionnettes en Europe, calls the years of Powell's pre-eminence "the golden age of marionettes in England." It has been commented "Powell is described as a deformed cripple but his powers of satire were considerable," to the extent that the ministry recruited Powell to lampoon the French prophets to diminish their influence among the populace. He not only narrated (spoke the lengthy prologues), with a wand in hand, but was a puppeteer himself, and he is thought to have built his own puppet figures and written the plays himself.

A modern-day scholar assesses the period of Powell's prominent activity to be 1709–1720, the popularity of his puppetry having waned in the latter years, "his son briefly carried on the tradition in the [1720s]", and he died 1729.

In Bath (1709), Powell had his success with, e.g., The Creation of the World, which in its Noah's Flood segment featured "Punch and his wife dancing in the Ark."The Creation of the World, was also later put on by Powell at Bartholomew Fair.Shershow 1995, p. 113 This puppet show was not exclusive to Powell at the time, and a puppeteer known as "Crawley" staged it at Southwark Fair in 1695, and later at Bartholomew Fair in 1727.

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