National Cultural Identity in the Scenography of Karakalpak Puppet Theatre

Abstract

This article examines how national cultural identity is represented in the scenography of the Karakalpak State Puppet Theatre and how traditional cultural elements interact with puppet design, costume, stage space, decorative imagery, lighting and contemporary theatrical technologies. The study adopts a qualitative multiple-case design. Four productions staged between 2018 and 2025 – Qirq qiz (2018), Qushlarni kutgan bolalar (2022), Chopon afsonasi (2023) and Sehrli uzuk (2025) – were selected as cases representing different dramaturgical sources: a folk epic, a contemporary original play, a folk legend and a foreign fairy tale. The data comprise repertoire materials of the theatre, interviews with the stage designer T. Shardemetov and the puppet master M. Baygaldiyev, and visual analysis of the productions. Each case was analysed against six parameters: dramaturgical source, organisation of stage space, puppet system, costume and ornament, light and technology, and symbolic markers of national identity. The results show four distinct modes of representing national identity: epic-symbolic condensation (Qirq qiz), socio-ecological contemporisation (Qushlarni kutgan bolalar), ornamental-legendary transformation (Chopon afsonasi) and intercultural localisation (Sehrli uzuk). In all cases, national identity is expressed not only through ethnographic details but through the artistic and plastic structure of the performance as a whole. The study concludes that the scenography of the theatre is moving from the direct reproduction of traditional elements towards symbolic, transformable and technologically mediated interpretations of Karakalpak cultural heritage.