Former top puppeteer turns 100
As Edna Burton reflects on a century of telling tales, she holds a photograph of her late husband Jim close to her heart.
The duo came to New Zealand, from Scotland, in 1955 and forged a reputation as the world’s best puppeteers. Together, they travelled the world, told stories and made people laugh.
On August 30, Edna celebrates her 100th birthday. With her husband she created the Burton Theatre of Puppets in 1950, making their own puppets, writing scripts and doing all the performances together.
What started as a hobby became a career and it was soon the centre of Jim and Edna’s love for each other. Following Jim’s passing, after a battle with illness in the 1980s, Edna retired and hung up her prized puppets for good. ‘‘It was our thing,’’ Edna said. ‘‘He was much better with them than I was, but we did them together.’’
However, the Burtons are still widely regarded as legendary pioneers of puppetry in New Zealand. Their life’s work, including puppets from the 1974 show The Samurai, is on display at Te Papa Museum.
They are also internationally recognised in their field and attended the first International Puppet Festival, in 1979, in Tokyo, Japan.
Edna’s love of puppetry began in Scotland with two marionettes. Jim carved them and Edna made the costumes, an arrangement that continued for the rest of their life as puppeteers. They took their puppet shows to children all over the country. Between 1962 and 1981, they visited 150 schools each year, averaging 350 performances.
The Burtons never rested on their laurels. Each year, they produced new plays and puppets and based their performances on folk tales from Hungary, Russia, Turkey, China, and Japan.
They performed regularly on a children’s television show called Sir Foosebury Ghoul and His Horse and, in 1969, also performed with the New Zealand Opera Company.