Portraits of Puppets - Basel Marionetten Theater; Classic Punk Songs

The Basel Marionetten Theater (string puppet theatre) is over 80 years old. It is the city's oldest cellar theatre and the first theatre with regular productions for the whole family. Photographer Gilbert Mayer captured around 120 Marionette portraits – most of them created by theatre founder Richard Koelner – in a book called «Charakterköpfe». Mayer used collodion wet plate photography for this, which was introduced around 1850. The photographs and selected puppets are exhibited at Kultur Reverenz at «Zum rothen Schneck» (Reverenzgässlein 2, entrance Oberer Rheinweg) until 20 May 2024. The exhibition is open every day from 1pm to 7pm and admission is free. You can buy the book at various locations (for example at Bider & Tanner) for CHF 45.-. Gabe Bullard talked to Gilbert Mayer about the project. Listen to the interview here.

Our music theme was all about classic 70s punk. We played:

The Clash - London Calling

The Runaways - Cherry Bomb

The Undertones - Teenage Kicks

The Damned - New Rose

The Boomtown Rats - Lookin' After Number One

Blondie - X Offender

The Only Ones - Another Girl Another Planet

Ramones - Blitzkrieg Bop

The Jam - News Of The World

The Ruts - Babylon's Burning

Sex Pistols - God Save the Queen