Stages on Pages

Theatrical Movable Books and Toy Theatres in McGill Collections

Abstract

Theatrical movable books and toy theatres occupy a fertile middle ground between page and stage, where printed sheets become three-dimensional creative spaces. This paper examines that overlap through nineteenth-century theatrical movables and toy theatre materials preserved in two interrelated McGill Library collections: children’s literature and puppetry. Focusing on Alexandre Capendu’s Grand Théâtre en Actions (1879), Benjamin Pollock’s Sleeping Beauty toy theatre sheets, and movable works by Franz Bonn and Isabella Braun, the study traces a continuum from flat, printed plates to fully realized three-dimensional dioramas, foregrounding their shared design techniques, modes of interaction, and destructive creation.
Theatrical movables adapt toy theatre scenography and puppetry’s ensecretage to invite readers into roles of interactor, puppeteer, and spectator at once. Comparative analysis of mechanisms – multiple-layer set-up dioramas, tab-lift stage sets, and lever-animated figures – shows how paper engineering choreographs gesture, scripting specific actions, while toy theatres allow for greater improvisation and open-ended play.
The intersections of toy theatres and theatrical movables reveal a dynamic interplay of print, performance, and childhood creativity that enriches histories of the book, domestic theatre, and interactive reading practices.